A Trip to the Homeland

Eliza and I recently returned from a trip to Rochester, New York—my hometown. We went to visit family and friends who hadn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting Eliza. While there I was struck by how many foods I have been missing since moving to Texas. I made it my mission that week to eat all the foods I can’t get in Austin. I left Rochester after a week a few pounds heavier, but with a smile on my face.

For all the delicious food in Austin, one thing I have struggled to find is some good, hearty Italian food. I’m not talking wood-fired pizzas and “artisan” pastas. I’m talking about a big bowl of stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth gnocchi covered in red sauce that took three days to make. And that’s what they serve at Agatina’s.

For the most part, Eliza was a perfect doll the entire week, but when we went to Agatina’s, she really cranked out. Before our entrees arrived it became obvious she wasn’t going to settle down anytime soon, so we got our food to go and enjoyed it at home. It was still delicious and we had tons of leftovers. It was exactly what I wanted.

Among the other foods I gorged myself on last week were white hots, real bagels, scallion pancakes (I haven’t been able to find these in Austin), and white pizza from Martusciello’s Bakery.

But enough about the savory side—what about dessert? On our last day in the Flower City, we took a trip to Savoia Pastry Shoppe, one of the best bakeries in the greater Rochester area. After hemming, hawing, and trying to rationalize just getting one of everything, we settled on three varieties of cookies, a sfogliatelle, and a pasticiotti. I inhaled nearly all the cookies myself; of the three we got, the raspberry jam sandwich cookies were the winner, but just barely. The butter cookies with a plump dollop of chocolate frosting were the perfect combo of vanilla and chocolate, and the amaretti were, of course, sublime—perfectly chewy and crispy. I wasn’t impressed with the sfogliatelle (it was rather bland), but the pasticiotti was good—sort of a sugar cookie filled with pastry cream. You could fill a throw pillow with pastry cream and it would be delicious.

We also squeezed in a trip to Schutt’s, and even though Eliza seemed thoroughly unimpressed, I had a blast. We picked up a dozen fried cakes and a half-gallon of fresh cider to bring over to my grandmother’s house. It was a perfect fall day, still pretty warm, and the donuts and cider made a great snack.

But I’m still thinking about those Italian cookies. My next baking project is going to be to try to replicate those butter cookies. The great thing about the Italian butter cookies is their versatility—both the raspberry jam cookies and the cookies with the chocolate frosting from Savoia were made from the same basic butter cookie recipe. There are countless variations—different shapes, sizes, fillings, toppings, and flavorings. I look forward to a little experimentation.