One of the most important parts of an Italian neighborhood is the bakery. Each one has it's speciality and you will walk blocks out of the way to get the thing they make better than anyone else.
You would go to Mazzola's for the freshest lard bread. Made with tons of lard and fresh salami and lots of pepper. It melts in your mouth.
You would go to Caputo's for the best hard pepper biscuits that you put in stews or sauces or Italian wedding soups.
You would go to Court Pastry for big pastry and S cookies as well as the mascapone cows at Easter.
You went to Leotta's for miniature pastry and ice cream cakes before they closed in 1978.
And you went to Monteleone's for lemon ices.
Now these aren't the hard ices you get from Marino's that you see in your supermarket. They came in big drums that the girl scoops up and puts in a soft paper cup. Court Pastry has great ices too. But Monteleones didn't have just the normal custard and lemon and chocolate and pistachio. They had great flavors like Zuppa English and Pineapple and best of all Rum Raisin.
Now Monteleones went through a lot of changes the last twenty years. They had several different owners. They were even closed down by the health department. Which is no big deal because they were just extorting money as usual in NYC. But the original family decided to combine with another old school family from Carroll Gardens. The Cammareri bakery from Henry Street. This was the joint they used when they filmed "Moonstruck" with Cher and that other idiot guy who shouts all his dialogue. Two different sets of idiot cousins got together and redid the whole joint. Spent tons of money. And ran it into the ground.
So now a husband and wife bought it. The wife is tiny but is still a customer in the store. She loves the stuff that Lisa has brought in like pocket books and scarves and earrings and what not. And I give them plenty of business buying pastry and bread and coffee and cookies. The baker made the cake for Lisa's big birthday bash. And he just started making gelato and ices. And guess what? He made some Rum Raisin.
You see I told him that was what they were famous for and went right out and made it. He gets it. He just moved here but he is like he has lived here all his life. All the neighborhood mooks go in there for ices and cakes. I even filmed part of the show in there. I don't know if they will use it but we did film there.
And now I can get my Rum Raisin Italian Ice every day.
Life is good.
18 comments:
Sweet.
We have those kinds of things here, you just have to drive all over to get to 'em.
It is sarsa time in Madison. The hot August sun has ripened the tomatoes, and Monona Bay that skirts 'Little Italy' seems congealed in silver silence. It is the season before the gnat invasion.
All along lower Regent Street, in adjoining backyards and open spaces off Milton Street, Italian housewives are vigilantly guarding the sarsa boards from the threat of rain. Within the homes the kettles are boiling—big kettles filled with sliced red tomatoes. When after an hour the cooking has turned the bubbling pulp into a thin red sauce, the contents are strained. Then the squishy mass is poured on clean white sarsa boards and placed in the sun to evaporate. Every hour, or oftener, the thickening nucleus is spread and respread until it takes on a richer shade and becomes a heavy relish. As it is packed away in jars, olive oil is poured on top—enough to form an air-proof covering. The finished product is then ready for use—all fall, all winter, all spring—until another crop of red tomatoes can be harvested.
~from Old World Wisconsin by Fred Holmes
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I especially like the simple trick of pouring oil over the sarsa to keep out air. That's exactly how commercial sodium and potassium metals (both high air and moisture sensitive) are sold--submerged in oil to keep out air and moisture.
Oh man if I ate one of those things now I would probably get sick, but it would taste so good before coming right back up, haven't had real sugar for a whole year.
I love the give and take with other business owners in town. The guy I bought my shed from this past week has been a great customer for years. He and his wife used to come in together on Saturday evenings. Now they have kids and we've watched them as they grow. When I handed him the check for the shed, I commented, "And with one transaction, we're even." He laughed.
We don't have an Italian bakery. I don't think the Italians we have here are authentic. They can't cook. If you mention a cannoli, the locals want to know if it has an automatic transmission or a stick shift (actually they call it "straight drive").
You make me want to visit NYC again.
Good crusty peasant bread. Tough to beat.
Just introduced a bunch of cheeseheads to polenta this weekend @ my house. They loved it. No matter the culture, I always prefer the peasant food. And, I see more and more other folks do also.
I also like peasant food. The simpler the meal the better. I love hamburger, gravy on top of boiled potatoes.
Nick, polenta isn't just Italian, my mother used to make it when we were growing up. Although the region of Croatia they lived in was full of Italians too. Germans, Italians, Jewish and the Slavs. Before the war the Jews were ethnically "cleansed", then after the war the Germans, payback is a bitch. That's how I came to be born in Austria.
I wonder what happened to the Italians.
I wonder what happened to the Italians.
They were last spotted in Dalmatia.
Allie - You should take a drive to Brady Street and spend time in the newly expanded Glorioso's Italian Grocery Store. I blogged about it here.
Then walk next door to Peter Sciortino's Bakery.
Excellent stuff, the best in town.
Allie, it is about as basic a food as there is. One of the folks who ate the polenta was an old Norwegian who said, "This is like the corn mush my mother made. She would serve as porridge and then bake the rest and serve it the next day fried w/ maple syrup.
How did you eat it. I served the creamy polenta[just cooked w/ stock, butter, and then grated cheese] topped w/ a pork/tomato ragu. I wanted to do a rabbit[hasenfeffer to you Teutonics] ragu but my bride thinks rabbit is too sweet. I think she just really dosn't like to eat the cute bunnies we see running through our yard.
With the leftover polenta I like to fry it in olive oil and put some tomato based sauce over it. My bride is into eating gluten free and polenta abides that while pasta does not. And, don't tell me about gluten free pasta, tried it and it's horseshit!
I may have told you this but we had a lot of great German food in Chicago. One of favs was Zum Deutchen Eck. It was there on Lincoln Ave. for years but closed ~10 years ago. One of our other favs is still there. it's Austrian[all you Teutonics look alike to me] and named Cafe Mirabell. Located on Addison, just a block from the Kennedy Expwy.
I haven't had Rum Raisin Italian ice, but I've had the Haagen Dazs ice cream and it was amazing, so it sounds yummy. I worked in an ice cream parlor/arcade during HS and we served Haagen Dazs. Tough to resist.
My favorite Italian dessert is cannoli. I just don't know how you can top that (besides with chocolate chips and nuts).
Nick, my mother would cook it up plain and we would eat it with rouladin and beef gravy or sauerbraten and the gravy. My dad liked it the next day with warm milk and cinnamon and sugar, yuck.
I used to make it with freshly grated cheese, melted in with a bit of heavy cream. It was creamy cheesy heaven in a bowl.
I don eat it anymore to carby :(
Waitaminnit.
I believe that I correctly read Darcy's comment above expressing her strong like of rum raisin Italian ice.
That cannot be the Darcy we know. Our Darcy has a jihadi's hatred for raisins.
Unless the rum evens things out, sorta.
Why eat old and shriveled grapes when you can have the succulent ones in season or drink their fermented juice?
I believe the rum content wins out over the raisin content.
She's fanatical, not crazy.
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