This is the wedding photo of my grandmother Dora’s younger sister, Dava Barbaresi, taken sometime in the early 1940’s. Dora [Barbaresi] Donroe was her maid-of-honor. Dava’s husband, Eddie Apuzzo, and Dora’s husband, Freddie Donroe, were best friends. On the far right is my great grandfather, George Barbaresi. On the far left, I’m not sure, but it looks like maybe a brother of Eddie’s. The young men, as well as Freddie, were getting ready to ship out with the military, headed for Europe during World War II.
Dava was the baker in the family. She used this pie crust for her famous rice and Italian cream pies. The crust, I was told by Dava’s daughter, Roseann, is temperamental, and no one in the family has been able to master it. After my first attempt, it was clear that I hadn’t mastered it, either. Unless Dava’s technique happened to involve causing the dough to fall apart into a million pieces and then pressing them into the pie dish in a perturbed fashion. Could that have been it?
So, I’ve taken some liberties to make the recipe easier to work with. My apologies in advance for inserting a food processor into an otherwise vintage recipe. Also, under normal circumstances, you want to handle your pie dough as little as possible so the gluten doesn’t develop and cause the crust to toughen up. But, in this case, I found that gently kneading the dough really helps the eggs to incorporate and allows just enough gluten to develop to hold everything together. It also improved the texture, making the finished crust flakier.
Anyway, it meets my specs as far as crusts go, but I’ll need someone else in the family to try this and see if the crust tastes the way you remember it. The rice pie filling is coming up next week and, by god, if you do decide to try it, make sure your wills are in order.
Italian Sweet Crust
This spiced crust is like a cross between your typical pie crust and a soft sugar cookie. Dava used it for her rice pie and Italian cream pie.
3 cups flour
¾ cup sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. cinnamon
¾ cup shortening, cut into medium hunks
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
By hand: In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. Cut in shortening.
In a food processor: Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add shortening and, using the on/off turns, pulse 10-12 times until the shortening pieces are the size of peas. Dump mixture into a bowl.
Make a well in the ingredients, and add eggs and vanilla. Fluff until eggs are incorporated. Knead gently until dough is smooth. If you’re worried you overdid it, just wrap in plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator for a half hour to relax the gluten. Dough will be soft. Cut into three parts. Roll as a pie crust.
Makes enough dough for two 10-inch rice pies plus lattice, or one 10-inch Italian cream pie with a top crust (plus an extra crust you can freeze).
Dava [Barbaresi] Catone
Hamden, Connecticut
1921-1998
Next Recipe: Sweet Rice Pie
(Previous Recipe: Cappellettis)
Man those women sure knew how to dress, didn't they. Rice pie?! I can't wait to see what that is.
Posted by: Sally | April 28, 2007 at 07:00 AM
What a wonderful picture! I've just been going through old trunk at my Grandma's house and have found some great pics like this one.
Posted by: Brilynn | April 29, 2007 at 08:58 PM
Great article and wonderful recipe! Very informative!
Posted by: freya | April 30, 2007 at 08:49 AM
Wow.. I've never heard of putting vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon IN a dough pie crust. Your Aunt Dava was (is?) a genius! Oh and I covet that dress.. I'd never get my thigh into it, but it's just gorgeous.
xoxo
Posted by: Lisa | April 30, 2007 at 02:47 PM
Hi Tammy,
Thanks so much for taking the time to describe the dough recipe in detail. I find that too many recipes skimp on the dough explanation and that's the hard part. Do you ever notice that great tasting doughs are always a pain in the ass to work with? My favorite breads have doughs so wet, you can't pick them up at all, my pasta dough is so stiff, it takes serious effort to knead it, and my pie dough barely holds together. But these annoying doughs always end up tasting great and whenever I've tried "comfortable" doughs, they don't seem to be as yummy. I really wish I could do both because my students often ask for doughs that are easier to handle. Do you make your own pasta? If you have any tips, we should get together for a pasta making day sometimes :)
Cheers,
-Helen
Posted by: Helen Rennie | May 10, 2007 at 12:04 PM
Did you ever have the Ricotta pie at Lucibello's (corner of Olive and Grand), at any time before, say 2000, or whenever all the recipes changed? The crust was not quite like a soft sugar cookie. It was almost cakey.
My husband has a rice-pie recipe from his Great-Aunt (also of New Haven). It is an oil-based crust. We think it is supposed to be like Lucibello's former Ricotta pie crust. We just can't get it quite right. Probably, just too much flour. Do you know anything about this kind of crust?
Posted by: Family Nutritionist | March 27, 2008 at 05:14 PM
Thanks for providing such a great recipe from the past.
I'll give it a try tomorrow.
Selena Ksena
Posted by: Selena Ksena | December 25, 2009 at 08:55 AM