Paolina Rella (1903-1981) contributed a lot more than just her name to the midcoast’s best new pizzeria. Her spirit infuses everything at Paolina’s Way in Camden, from the fresh tomato sauce to the hand-picked flowers on the tables. But her influence is most deeply felt in the passion of owner Christina Sidoti, Paolina’s granddaughter.

It was in Paolina’s apartment in Queens, New York, where Sidoti first fell in love with food. “The apartment smelled heavenly,” recalls Sidoti. “You could smell the sauce from the hallway. I would immediately run into her bedroom, curious what shape pasta she was making. She made it in the kitchen and dried it on her clean, crisp white bedsheets because it was the biggest surface she had.”

Wander into the cozy alleyway between Bayview Landing and the Camden Public Landing and you, too, might smell that same enchanting aroma.

The inviting white light-framed entryway and coveted outdoor patio might fool you into thinking you’re in Capri. But one look at the local seafood-peppered menu proves otherwise. Paolina’s Way is a perfected marriage of Italian tradition and Maine sensibility. Whole roasted ocean perch, wood-fire roasted local mussels, Maine shrimp pizza, and spectacular lobster ravioli give the thoroughly Italian menu a Maine touch. Some select ingredients come straight from Italy — like most of the biodynamic or sustainably harvested wines. If an ingredient is available organically, Sidoti and chef Randall Baldwin use it. And almost every vegetable and herb on the menu is harvested fifteen miles away at the restaurant’s four-acre organic farm in Searsmont, Sidoti’s childhood summer stomping grounds.

“When I was a little girl, my parents dragged us kicking and screaming from New York,” admits Sidoti. “But I got out of the car in Searsmont and fell in love instantly.” Decades later, that same land is providing delicious produce for the Paolina’s Way menu: baby kale in the baby kale salad with feta cheese, pine nuts, and balsamic-soaked onions; arugula on the Pizza Bianca with truffle oil and prosciutto; an abundance of parsley that Sidoti swears is the secret to her grandmother’s soul-quenching spaghetti and meatballs recipe; even bushels of basil that are featured in the basil daiquiri.

Sophisticated as it may be, Paolina’s Way is a pizzeria at heart. More than ten varieties of pizza dominate the menu. The enormous wood-burning pizza oven forms the familial hearth of the restaurant. If you’re looking for economical eats to feed hungry and picky teenagers, this might not be your best bet (thin-crust, thirteen-inch pies start at $17). But if you’re in search of thoughtful, wholesome, satisfying food — more specifically, some of the best Italian-style pizza in Maine — you’ve found an organic oasis.

And each season offers new reasons to return. Now, as fall approaches, summer’s lobster ravioli gives way to pumpkin or butternut squash. Root vegetables begin appearing as pizza toppings. The lineup of authentic gelato — made by Maple’s Organic Desserts of Portland and John’s in Liberty and served from a picture-perfect cart on the patio — changes from the likes of wild blueberry sorbetto to pumpkin ginger.

One thing that never changes is the margherita pizza. “A test of a great pizza place is a margherita,” says Sidoti. “It’s pure and simple. There can be no lies on a margherita.” The close-to-perfection pie at Paolina’s Way passes with ease, filling the restaurant with the same smells one can only imagine were emanating from Paolina’s Queens kitchen.

And that’s just as it should be. From the sun-soaked, comfy yellow booths to the genuine friendliness of the staff, Sidoti has given patrons precisely what Paolina gave her own family — a place to linger in the midst of good company and nurturing Italian food.

Paolina’s Way is located at 7 Public Landing in Camden. It is open seven days a week during the summer for lunch from 12 to 3 p.m. and for dinner from 5 to 9:30 p.m. (Call for fall and winter schedule.) Appetizers $8 to $19. Entrees and pizzas $17 to $24. Desserts $8. Handicap accessible. 207-230-0555. www.paolinasway.com