The sauce.

At II Panino, an informal Italian eatery on Mass. Ave. frequented by students and Cambridge residents, people speak of the sauce.

The cops especially like it.

II Panino is Cambridge's own version of a late-night doughnut shop where police officers gather, hang out and eat.

Seldom is there not a police officer in the restaurant and often there is a whole group of officers sitting at a table downing a large plate of al dente pasta and sauce.

II Panino--literally, "the sandwich"--opened its Cambridge location two years ago. The restaurant boasts family-style, or trattoria-like, dining. There are no waiters, the cooks simply yell out the completed orders. The menu offers sub sandwiches, myriad pastas, pizza, calzone, fish and chicken, most of which come with sauce.

"It's the best. I love it," says Officer Lenny J. diPietro. "I bring my family here. It's the greatest."

"It's just like my mother makes at home. Honest to God," he says. "And I'm Italian."

II Panino's co-owner Bob Carreiro is pleased by the police presence in his restaurant. "There's mutual respect between us and the cops," Carreiro says. "Police eat wherever they want. They choose the best places. They come here. They talk with people and get along with the customers."

But II Panino and its sauce attracts more than police.

"This restaurant caters to make people comfortable," Carreiro says. "We get the police, neighbors, regular people and students."

Among others, the owner of the New England Patriots has eaten here, as has the TV personality who picks the state lottery numbers from spinning containers.

The restaurant also entertains a large number of "regulars."

These avid customers dine at II Panino as many as six times a week for dinner, and drop by for lunch, too.

"Some restaurants throw pizza sauce on their pasta," says one woman, a self-proclaimed regular. "Not this one."

The sauce.

The woman recounts how on her first visit she and her husband made to II Panino the couple asked repeatedly for more sauce, until the cook finally placed a vat of it on their table. "And we finished it!" the woman exclaims.

The two say they feel that II Panino is as good as any Italian restaurant in the Boston and Cambridge areas, despite its notably low prices.

The sauce--which comes gratis with the pasta--is made from a distinguished brand of Italian tomato paste made of Pastine plum tomatoes.

The cook, Joe Diaz, was once a dishwasher. Now, Carreiro says, "the cook is almost as good as me.

"Almost," he says. "I'd never let him get the edge."