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Saturday, Feb. 06, 2010

Family recipe: Lamanuzzi's makes taralli the old fashioned way

FRESNO -- Taralli: Say this word to folks of southern Italian heritage and images of the crunchy, breadsticklike treat will come to mind. Better yet, they might recall the scent of hot taralli -- a steam of yeasty dough, salt and fennel that inspires instant cravings.

That's the aroma on Saturdays at Lamanuzzi's Italian Pretzels, when the owners bake their signature item. Try the traditional, studded with fennel seed and flavored with salt. Or the hot traditional, which adds the kick of cayenne pepper and crushed red pepper flakes. Or the onion one, the garlic one and yes, even a pizza one.

Taralli are popular in the central San Joaquin Valley. Lamanuzzi's, at the northwest corner of Marks and Bullard avenues, is the only taralli bakery in Fresno. Sam's Italian Deli & Market at First Street and Clinton Avenue brings them in from a New Jersey baker. Piemonte's Italian Deli in the Tower District sells taralli from Allocco's Italian Bakery in Cambria, as well as ones imported from Italy by A.G. Ferrari Foods.

What's all the fuss about?

"They're a snack food in Italy," says Frank Lamanuzzi of Lamanuzzi's Italian Pretzels. Typical at weddings, funerals and other large family gatherings, taralli are a tradition. "Older generations of Italians would dunk them in wine or in coffee."

Nick Marziliano of Sam's Italian Deli likes to eat them with meat, cheese and olives. He takes packages of them on road trips for his children. "They're always in the house," he says.

Fresno has a long history with taralli. More than 20 years ago, when Italian delis were more common in Fresno, a local Italian woman made lots of taralli for several shops.

Marziliano, then a teenager, used to pick them up from her house for Sam's Italian Deli. "She had racks of them from the kitchen to her couch," he says.

"There were a few ladies who would make them," Marziliano adds. "They would go to the beauty salons and take orders."

Marziliano explains the local demand with a map. He runs a finger along the Adriatic coast near the heel of the boot of Italy. There's Bari -- his parents' home city. And just up the coast is Bisceglie, the Lamanuzzis' hometown.

There are many Valley folks with ties to that area, where taralli are a staple, Marziliano says.

Count the Lamanuzzis among them. Like some other Italians, they were drawn to Fresno because the dry, hot weather reminded them of home.

Lamanuzzi's grandparents arrived in the 1910s, settling on a vineyard in what is now known as River Park. They had a self-sufficient lifestyle, making their own soap, butchering their own animals and baking their own bread and taralli.

"She'd only make them for special occasions," Lamanuzzi says of the taralli. He estimates that it would take about six hours for three people to make 5 pounds of taralli.

As generations went by, the time-consuming practice of making taralli fell by the wayside. But Joe Lamanuzzi, Frank Lamanuzzi's brother, aimed to revive it. About eight years ago, he called the family together for a taralli lesson.

This gathering, held at an aunt's Fresno home, convinced Frank Lamanuzzi to make taralli regularly.

"My aunt said, 'If you can make them as good as your brother Joe makes them, I'll buy them from you.' "

Frank Lamanuzzi originally made taralli as a way to stay busy during retirement. Six-and-a-half years later, with his taralli gaining popularity, he met with his children.

"I said, 'Someone needs to learn how to do this,' " he says.

His son, Bruce Lamanuzzi, took the lead in launching a taralli bakery. And his grandson, Jacob Lamanuzzi, left San Diego and returned home to work full time in the new business. Despite the slow economy, Lamanuzzi's Italian Pretzels opened in September 2009.

"I don't think there's ever a right time," Bruce Lamanuzzi says. "You just do it or you don't."

A Saturday visit shows off a division of labor among family members. For the traditional taralli, they combine flour, wine, water, canola oil, olive oil, fennel seed, salt and yeast. One team rolls the dough by hand, pushes it through a sausage stuffer and shapes the dough into ovals.

Another team dips the ovals into boiling water, then lays them out to dry on wire racks. Once the dough is dry, it's baked. The finished taralli are cooled before they're packaged.

"You don't want to eat them hot," Bruce Lamanuzzi says. They attain the right texture -- crunchy, and just a little crumbly -- only after they're cooled.

Of course, as with other dishes, there's no single way to make taralli, but Marziliano and the Lamanuzzis agree that a key ingredient is good olive oil. Sam's taralli contains only olive oil, while Lamanuzzi's have both olive and canola oils.