Growing up, James Beard-nominated baker Renato Poliafito endured so much teasing over his hard-to-pronounce name that he briefly tried going by “Joe,” the anglicization of his middle name, Giuseppe.
Poliafito tells the tale in a recipe headnote for Zeppole di San Giuseppe, cherry-topped cream puffs traditionally served for the Feast of San Giuseppe, in his fifth cookbook, “Dolci! American Baking With an Italian Accent” (Knopf, $38).
The nickname didn’t stick. He adds, “It wasn’t until much later that I realized my name was pretty fantastic, and wholly unique.” The same could be said for “Dolci!”, Italian for “sweets.” This collection of sugary and savory treats captures the Italian American DNA that Poliafito, a proud son of first-generation Sicilian immigrants, now embraces.
Two decades ago, he opened Baked, a small cafe in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where he mastered the techniques of traditional American baking. Privately, he tinkered with time-tested Italian classics and in 2019 opened Ciao, Gloria in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn — a cafe/bakery he calls “a marriage of my two cultures, through food that’s uniquely me.”
Recipe chapters reflect that synergy, beginning with cross-cultural breakfast goodies such as Pumpkin Nutella Bread and Sicilian Sticky Buns. Cookies and biscotti come next, followed by pies and crostadas, breads and savories, cakes and tortas, spoonable desserts, and foundations such as Italian buttercream, pizza dough and brioche.
I made his cantucci (biscotti-like cookies scented with anise and flecked with almonds) and his rendition of panna cotta, which artfully pairs layers of vanilla custard with fresh strawberry gelatin. Both earned “wows” from my tasters. The luscious food photography combined with alternating street scenes of Italy and New York tempts us to taste the best of two worlds in one glorious mouthful.
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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