Just in time for peach season, it’s a beautiful meeting of Italian and American cooking
Back in 2017, Renato Poliafito had just left Baked, the beloved Brooklyn bakery he co-founded in 2005. He thought he might write a book, part-cookbook, part-memoir, focused on the desserts and pastry of Italy. His agent wasn’t sold on the idea, so Poliafito decided to move forward with another idea, this one for Ciao, Gloria, the effervescent Brooklyn coffee shop, cafe, and bakery he eventually opened in 2019. A lot of its menu is influenced by Italy; “I thought, maybe one day the cafe will beget a cookbook,” Poliafito recalls. A pandemic later, it did, when Poliafito’s agent reapproached him, telling him he had to write that cookbook now.
“Italy was having this resurgence,” Poliafito says. “Post-pandemic, people wanted to travel again and one of the safest, most familiar places to go is Italy. It’s travel 101.” And, he adds, there was another factor: “I have to thank The White Lotus. When I was watching it, I was like, damn, I wish my book was coming out right now.”
Although Dolci! American Baking With an Italian Accent, didn’t dovetail with The White Lotus’s sordid sojourn to Sicily, its timing is still fortuitous: Published late last month, it is one of a number of new cookbooks whose recipes and lenses are trained on Europe, coastal and otherwise. Dolci!, with its gorgeous photos of both Italy and its desserts, will likewise do nothing to dissuade readers from wanting to pack their bags. “It’s kind of hysterical,” Poliafito says of the trend. “I feel like I’m part of this movement, like Britpop in the ’90s.”
Poliafito is the son of immigrants from Sicily, and Dolci! reflects what he calls his “lifetime of experience” growing up not only with Italian food but also the ways in which it has absorbed American influences. When he started writing the book with Casey Elsass, he had an arsenal of pastry recipes, but found that focusing on what he calls the “repeat offenders” that tend to show up in Italian pastry recipes, such as almond, pistachio, chocolate, and ricotta, was challenging. But once Poliafito realized that he could broaden his focus to include both American desserts and American desserts with an Italian twist, “it opened the floodgates, because it’s like everything is on the table,” he says.
Thus, his cookbook’s pages contain recipes for very Italian cantucci, maritozzi, and zeppole di San Giuseppe, but also cocoa ricotta zeppole with tahini glaze, red velvet cake, and cinnamon rolls that use orange blossom water in their frosting. There’s cannoli, yes, as well as a cannoli cake. The question of how much to tinker with certain recipes informed the book’s development; with each one, Poliafito questioned where to “draw the line” between authenticity and homage, or whether to “keep [the recipe’s] core intact and then work on some other aspects.” The ultimate goal, he says, wasn’t to bastardize but to have fun.
One of the book’s most straightforward recipes is its peaches and cream semifreddo, a dish whose name displays its Italian and American influences. In Italy, peaches abound in the summer as much as they do here, and “the peaches and cream combination is very American in a lot of ways,” Poliafito says. Aside from adequate chilling and freezing time, the recipe doesn’t demand much. One bit of advice? “You want to use the most delicious ripe fruit available,” Poliafito says — no matter whether you make this here or in Italy.
Peaches and Cream Semifreddo Recipe
Makes 1 9-inch (23 cm) semifreddo
Ingredients:
For the semifreddo:
3½ cups (300 grams) diced peaches (4 to 5 peaches)
5 tablespoons plus ½ cup (65 grams, plus 100 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams) fresh lemon juice
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1½ cups (345 grams) heavy cream, cold
2 tablespoons (12 grams) elderflower syrup (optional)
For the topping:
½ cup (85 grams) sliced peaches (1 to 2 peaches)
2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams) fresh lemon juice
Instructions:
Make the semifreddo:
Step 1: Line a 9-by-5-inch (23-by-13-cm) loaf pan with plastic wrap, leaving about 3 inches (8 cm) of overhang on all sides. Set in the freezer to chill.
Step 2: In a medium saucepan, combine the peaches, 5 tablespoons (65 grams) of the sugar, and the lemon juice. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to bubble. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the peaches release their juices and the mixture begins to thicken, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl to cool for 30 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours until chilled.
Step 3: Fill a medium saucepan with 2 inches (5 cm) of water and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Set a heatproof medium bowl over the saucepan, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Add the eggs and egg yolks and remaining sugar into the bowl and whisk constantly until the mixture is pale and thick, 5 to 8 minutes. It should fall off the whisk in slow ribbons and suspend on the surface for a few seconds. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and set aside to cool for 30 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour until chilled.
Step 4: When the yolk mixture is fully chilled, use a stand mixer fitted with a whisk to beat the heavy cream and elderflower syrup (if using) over medium speed until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes. Fold the whipped cream into the yolk mixture in three parts, until no streaks remain. Add one-third of the cooled peaches and fold to combine.
Transfer the mixture into the frozen loaf pan, then spoon the remaining peach mixture over the top. Cover with the plastic overhang, pressing onto the surface of the peaches. Freeze for 4 hours or overnight.
While the semifreddo is freezing, make the topping:
Step 1: In a small saucepan, combine the peaches, sugar, and lemon juice. Set over low heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and starts to bubble, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl to cool for 30 minutes, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until the semifreddo is ready.
Step 2: Uncover the semifreddo and invert onto a serving plate. Discard the plastic wrap. Spoon the chilled peach topping over the semifreddo before serving.
The semifreddo can be wrapped in plastic and stored in the freezer for up to 1 week.
From Dolci! by Renato Poliafito with Casey Elsass. Copyright © 2024 by Renato Poliafito. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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