Friday, March 16, 2007

St. Joseph's Day Feast - Great Excuse to Break Lent in Big Way

The ANNOTICO Report

 

The St Joseph Table celebration at the Local St Peter's Italian Church in Los Angeles was Remarkable. Unforgettable! 

 

FESTA

Honor San Giuseppe with a St. Joseph's Day Feast that Features Italy's Beloved Favorites

Asbury Park Press,

New Jersey

By Andrea Clurfield

March 14, 2007

As long as there's a lot, you'll be fine.

If you're planning a feast in honor of San Giuseppe, that is.

San Giuseppe, St. Joseph's on this side of the pond, is the patron saint of pastry cooks and children. But, since the holiday falls on March 19, typically smack dab in the middle of Lent, people use it as an excuse to pig out.

But it's not all prosciutto and pork-rich salumi products, mind you. In this area, folks toasting St. Joseph's Day zero in on two specific types of fried-dough pastries made just for the holiday: sfinci and various takes on zeppole .

Brooklyn-born baker John Buscema makes both sfinci and zeppole for La Dolce Bakery,...He learned his craft as a youth working in Italian bakeries in Brooklyn and has been baking ever since.

In the weeks leading up to March 19, Buscema makes "sfinci, which has a ricotta cream filling, like you'd make for a cannoli, and zeppole, too, which has a custard filling, something like a cream puff. The pastry is simple, just eggs, flour, oil and water."

What? No sugar?

"No, no sugar 'cause the fillings are sweet enough," Buscema says. "You get your sugar from the cannoli cream and the custard. There's powdered sugar (sprinkled) over the top. The important thing is, it has to be fried dough."

Buscema's classic St. Joseph's Day pastries also get a spray of green sprinkles and are topped with a vivid red maraschino cherry. The color connection to the Italian flag is no coincidence: The emblematic pastries, with creamy white filling and green and red accents, pay homage to the motherland.

Carmen Carracciolo of Marlboro, shopping at Tuscany Italian Market,..., says she doesn't make her own St. Joseph's Day pastries, but lets someone else do the baking for her.  "I'll buy mine right over there," Carracciolo says, pointing to La Dolce Bakery.

She also plans to purchase at Tuscany the makings of a grand antipasto platter that will be her contribution to her extended family's St. Joseph's Day fete: "Prosciutto, of course, roasted peppers, the artichokes that come marinated in jars, provolone, soppressata, olives  I'll buy all of that. We'll make pasta, sauce and meatballs and that'll be it. It's a good dinner."Her plan is typical of how some Italian-Americans commemorate the day.

In southern Italy, however, where San Giuseppe celebrations might include up to 100 different dishes, the earliest spring vegetables are showcased  fresh artichokes and asparagus, wild greens and fennel, fava beans and peas. Oranges are used for decoration and in pastries; countless ornamental breads are baked. Seafood, of course, plays a large role in any Italian buffet, and shrimp, balls of cod and sardines are fried, while hunks of tuna are marinated and grilled.

Back here, Michael Messina of Toms River shops at Mulberry Street Italian Deli, for his salami and prosciutto ("They've got good imported meats from Italy".) and knows for certain "we'll make meatballs for St. Joseph's. When I was a kid, we always made the Sicilian meatballs, the sweet-and-sour ones, with nuts in them. I don't know what made them sweet-and-sour, but they were good."

Indeed, traditional recipes for sweet-and-sour Sicilian meatballs call for a mix of meats, maybe pieces of salumi, ground chicken and ground pork, that are seasoned with cinnamon, minced candied citrus peel and chopped almonds then further invigorated with red-wine vinegar sauce.

But even those who only plan to cook a simple bowl of pasta dressed with good extra-virgin olive oil, a little garlic and a sprinkling of Parmigano-Reggiano cheese still make the day festive.

"That's what we like, plain pasta," says Paula Martin who shops regularly at Mulberry Street for olives, meats, canned tomatoes and her favorite prepared foods. "You don't have to make a fuss. Pasta, some antipasto. Sometimes we get fish and make fried fish, or salt cod and make cod balls. The dessert is what's special. We buy sfinci, which they make here and our kids love. They just eat it up."

Don't you bet San Giuseppe, patron saint of pastry cooks and children, is smiling?

 

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