• Home
  • About
  • Birds
  • Bread
  • Cakes and Cookies
  • Chocolate Making
  • Chocolate Making II
  • Chooks
  • Christmas
  • Fabulous Food
  • Family & Friends
  • Frugal Living
  • Homemade
  • In My Kitchen
  • In Our Garden
  • Jams, Preserves & Sauces
  • Musings
  • My Cool Things
  • Savoury
  • Suppliers
  • Sydney
  • Waste Reduction Plan
  • Pandemic Posts 2020

Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Living well in the urban village

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Waste Not Want Not Butter
Gourmet Potatoes #1 »

Joe’s Bagels

August 22, 2009 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

027

My friend Joe Cassaniti makes the best pasta in town.

That’s no hyperbole – Joe won so many prizes for his pasta at the  Sydney Easter Show  that they finally made him a judge, just so someone else could have a shot at winning. His products are so good that Pete and I have resigned ourselves to not making pasta at home.  We’ve tried on numerous occasions, but it never ever turns out as silky or as smooth as Joe’s.  That’s a big thing for us – anyone who reads this blog regularly will know how obsessed we are with making whatever we can from scratch!

The Cassinitis are a bread baking dynasty, having supplied Sydney’s restaurants with traditional Italian loaves for decades.  Before we started baking our own, most of our bread was bought on a weekly basis from their renowned Haberfield Bakery.  The queues to get into this little suburban bread shop go out the door and up the street on a Saturday morning!

Without fail, Mrs Cassiniti gives a free bread roll to every child who walks into her shop.  She’s been doing it for as long as I can remember, and when Big Boy was little, he saw it as a small recompense for being dragged out shopping. Then one day, when he was about fourteen, he came out of the bakery with a funny little smile on his face.  When I queried him, he sighed, “I don’t get a bread roll anymore”.  I pointed out that Mrs Cassaniti doesn’t give you a bread roll once you’ve started shaving…

Anyway, onto my story. We walked into Joe’s shop yesterday to buy some lasagne sheets for a Römersagne.

“Yooouu!”, he bellowed, waving an accusational finger at me. “It’s all your fault!  Come and look at what I’m doing! I’ve been reading your blog…”

He led us into the back of his shop where…he was making bagels. He’d gone next door to Mamma Cassiniti’s for some fresh yeast, malt extract and high protein bread flour, and mixed up a double batch of the dough.  It was perfect too – smoother and shinier than anything I’ve ever been able to make at home.  He let me shape a couple of giant bagels (200g each!)….

lpdq 025

…then popped the tray into his “combi” oven – a magnificent, huge  machine which first proved the dough, then steamed it, ready for baking.   (Christina, you need one of these!)

lpdq 026

The steamed rolls were topped with poppy and sesame seeds and returned to the combi to bake.  Bagels are usually boiled, but I was surprised at how well the steaming process worked. The texture was chewy like a good bagel should be, and the flavour malted and delicious  – a perfect match with our freshly made butter.  Joe kindly gave us three ginormous bagels, which the boys devoured with dinner.  Of course, now they’re nagging me to make a batch on the weekend. If you want to try making  your own bagels at home, our tutorial is here.

Peppe’s Pasta – the best place ever to buy fresh pasta – has a retail shop  in Sydney’s inner-west, at 151 Ramsay Road, Haberfield.  Take a freezer bag with you, as a lot of the gourmet filled pastas are snap frozen. Joe is there most afternoons – if you go in, ask him for a bagel..

034

Share this:

  • Email
  • Tweet

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted in Food & Friends | Tagged best pasta in Sydney, Haberfield Bakery, homemade bagels, Peppe's Pasta | 7 Comments

7 Responses

  1. on August 22, 2009 at 9:43 am Jane

    Wow … your bagels are contagious!! xxx


  2. on August 22, 2009 at 10:07 am figjamandlimecordial

    They were huge too – about twice the size of the ones I used to make you! :)


  3. on August 22, 2009 at 5:44 pm Dredgemeister

    i reckon three times the size of your normal ones… they were absolutely enormous. And tasted maginficent with our lentil soup.


    • on August 22, 2009 at 7:53 pm figjamandlimecordial

      Shhh….I didn’t mention to Joe that I’d shared some with the neighbours.. :D

      They were really good though, eh?


  4. on August 24, 2009 at 10:09 pm spice and more

    That is so cool…you are a legend! What an honor that the ‘son of Haberfield bakery’ is making your bagels. I often drive all the way from the other end of Sydney for their bread (and love to tell them that the deli up the road where I live sells their bread for five times the price). I look forward to seeing bagels on the menu next time….


    • on August 25, 2009 at 6:22 am figjamandlimecordial

      I keep nagging Joe to make more – they’re not nearly as much work when you have big dough mixers and an all-in-one oven!! And yes, I was so chuffed, particularly when Mama Cassaniti walked in and Joe told her that I’d given him the recipe… :)


  5. on August 24, 2009 at 10:10 pm spice and more

    PS…I want one of those ovens too…would come in handy every now and then…. :)



Comments are closed.

  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • Follow @celiafigjam
  • Recent Posts

    • Making Zokin
    • Curry Puff Pastry
    • Hiatus
    • The Glass Lid
    • Denim Revisited
    • Vegan World Peace Cookies
    • Here Be Chickens!
    • A Tale of Two $2 Quilts
    • Daily Quaft Therapy
    • A Repaired Tea Bowl
  • Categories

  • Archives

  • © All text and photos are copyright 2009 - 2023 Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. All rights reserved. Please ask first.

    Protected by Copyscape

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • Fig Jam and Lime Cordial
    • Join 14,064 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Fig Jam and Lime Cordial
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

  • Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • %d bloggers like this: