The Sandpoint Eater

By Marcia Pilgeram
Reader Staff

Last week, I was in San Diego and discovered that Little Italy covers 48 square blocks, making it the largest Little Italy community in the U.S. It’s always been a favorite shopping and dining mecca for me. While I didn’t navigate all 48 blocks of everything Italian, I still managed to cover a lot of ground, walking back and forth from my hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter to savor the charm and delicious meals found there. Two of my favorite cuisines are Italian and seafood; and, voila, there is no shortage of either in San Diego’s Little Italy. 

Aside from streets lined with lively patio cafes and old-style restaurants — complete with traditional red-checkered tablecloths — there are plenty of ethnic markets where you can pick up all the ingredients needed for a make-it-yourself Italian feast. 

Wherever I travel, I seek out ethnic neighborhoods, especially Italian ones. When I traveled as a private chef, purveying goods for train charters, I would seek out local, fresh markets. Finding a little Italian area was a bonus and was the first place I headed. Fresh pasta, sauces, cheeses and salumi — not salami (the Italian equivalent of French charcuterie) — were omnipresent on my extensive shopping list.

The Hill in St. Louis was always a favorite shopping stop for all things Italian. In addition to delis, The Hill was dotted with small bakeries filled with the scents of freshly baked bread and sweets, like soft amaretti cookies and cream-filled, crispy cannellini.  

While the thousands of Italians who migrated to San Francisco, Monterey and San Diego were primarily fishermen, the masses of immigrants who arrived in St. Louis came with a promise of work in the clay mines.  

Though Irish settlers immediately come to mind when we think of the copper mines in Butte, Mont., plenty of Italians showed up to toil in the dark, damp mines there, too. They settled in an area known as Meaderville, and shops such as A.C. Grosso General Merchandise and Guidi Brothers Grocery thrived for years, offering specialties like head cheese and four-inch salami that took an entire year to cure. 

Sadly, Meaderville no longer exists, and many other once-thriving Italian communities are also shrinking.  Little Italy in Lower Manhattan is quickly disappearing, thanks to skyrocketing rents. Most of the original families who operated shops lined with Italian goods on bustling streets for decades are now nothing but memories. 

It’s ironic that, today, the successful offspring of immigrants are buying villas and palazzos in Italy, reconnecting and reestablishing ties to their ancestral homeland. One of those people is Francis Ford Coppola. In 1904, his grandfather left Bernalda for an immigrant’s life in the U.S.  In 2004, Coppola purchased a historic villa near his grandfather’s place of upbringing and converted it into a small luxury hotel. 

I learned of Coppola’s Palazzo Margherita at a travel show in France last December, and was fascinated by the history of the villa, the Coppola family and the region’s culinary traditions that the engaging general manager, Rosella, shared with me. She opened a small treasure box tucked in a tote at her booth and presented me with a scorzette Bernalda. Baked by the chef at the villa, it was the best cookie I have ever tasted. She shared the ingredients and the recipe technique as I nibbled away, savoring every bite. 

Shortly after I returned home, I contacted Rosella for the recipe and, within days, it arrived in my inbox, with permission to share away. And so, I have. You’ve got time to perfect your batch before Valentine’s Day. Brava, Bernalda!

Scorzette Italian cookies from Palazzo Margherita

Scorzette Italian cookies from Palazzo Margherita

These tasty little cookies originated in Bernalda, a southern province of Italy. They are rich, crisp-yet-tender and are the perfect sweet finish to any meal. Added bonus — they’re gluten-free! 

Yield: About 6 dozen.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 ½ cups of almonds

• 1 ¾ cups of almond flour

• 2 ¼ cups of granulated sugar

• Whites of 5 large eggs, room temperature

• Dark chocolate, as needed (approx. 9 oz.)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. 

Use a food processor to chop the toasted almonds into small, coarse pieces. Do not grind them too finely; they should add texture to the pastries. After chopping, toast/stir in frying pan, careful not to burn!

Place the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.

In a separate bowl, whisk to combine the almond flour, the chopped almonds and granulated sugar.

Gently fold the dry mixture into the whipped egg whites using a spatula. Do this slowly to keep the mixture airy but well combined. The result should be a sticky, thick batter.

Scoop the batter into a piping bag fitted with a round tip (large tip, so nut pieces pass through). 

Pipe small balls of the batter (about the size of a walnut) onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave some space between each ball, they will spread slightly. If you don’t have a piping bag, scoop batter onto a teaspoon; and, with another spoon, push the dough onto the cookie sheet. Keep the size uniform. 

Bake for about 12 minutes, or until they are slightly golden but still soft in the center.

Once baked, let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet. Do not try to remove while hot or warm, or the cookies will not release from paper/pan

Carefully melt the dark chocolate on low in microwave, or use a double boiler (place a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, ensuring the bowl doesn’t touch the water).

Dip one side of each cookie into the melted chocolate or drizzle it over the top, depending on your preference. Place the dipped pastries on parchment paper and let the chocolate harden at room temperature. Dust tops lightly with powdered sugar, if desired.

Store in airtight container, placing parchment paper between layers. They do not freeze well (they turn sticky).