*gasp* Theres chocolate inside!!

That is called an Iris But we'll get into that in a moment.

We're here at Dolce Caffé, a family owned bakery run by Claudio, Giuseppe and Melissa.

They create a variety of different Italian and Sicilian foods.

we have a dinners, we have a charcuterie, pastry, we have a bread, the fresh bread.

Every day scacciata, cannoli, we have a pasta, Im doing pasta every day.

Come in and try hahaha ♪ theme music ♪ ♪ Italian music ♪ This is a iris I grew up with this.

I was in high school ate one everyday when we decided open our Dolce, I tell my daughter we need to have a iris The iris is a Sicilian brioche.

That looks like a round donut and is usually filled with ricotta cream or chocolate.

It's breaded in batter and fried to get a crispy outside and a soft inside.

The name comes from Antonio Lo Verso, a Palermo pastry chef who made the iris to celebrate the premiere of Pietro Mascagni' opera Iris in 1901.

The iris pastry was a hit in Sicily and is still loved for its amazing mix of textures and flavors.

This Iris was baked by Melissa, and she has even more to share with me.

as what we have right here for today, we have our Scacciata which is a very Sicilian dish.

It's a very comfort dish, I should say.

I make this once or twice a day.

I kind of was raised by it.

So today I'm going to show you guys how to make it Scacciata is a Sicilian stuffed flatbread made from thin, rectangular layers of laminated dough.

The name comes from a Sicilian word, meaning to drive away.

Similar to the Italian word Schiacciata which means to crush or to flatten.

Originally, it was a simple peasant dish made with leftover bread, veggies and meat.

But then Prince Moncada of Martorano asked for it at his 1763 Christmas celebration.

Now Scacciata is a beloved favorite in Sicily.

This version, made by Melissa is a classic way, but really you can add anything you want.

♪ italian music ♪ the ingredients is for today we have our ham, which we import from Italy.

We have our mozzarella cheese, our spinach and red sauce.

we layer the ham first.

We'll start that.

That's kind of like our first base and then second, third and fourth.

So we'll just start off right now.

Well just start out with our ham.

so what is the name of Dolce Caffé mean?

Sweet, sweet, sweet cafe.

Sweet cafe.

Yes.

after high school, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and all of the sudden, my mom was making tiramisu and I was like, I want to make tiramisu.

And I started making it and then fell in love with baking and just doing different things and trying different things.

And all the sudden my mom goes lets open a bakery and it just clicked, just look like that.

So now that we're finished with the ham, I'm going to start with our cheese So you're from Sicily?

Yes, I am from Sicily.

I am half Sicilian, half Spanish Basque.

But I was mostly grown up six years in Sicily.

And then we kind of moved around because my dad was in the Navy, I loved it there.

It's like it's my home.

Sicily is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, just south of the Italian peninsula and is one of Italy's 20 regions.

Although it's part of Italy, Sicily is distinctive due to its unique culture shaped by Greek Roman Arab Norman and Spanish influences.

This rich history contributes to its varied food, architecture, music, arts and overall lifestyle.

Sicily also holds a special place for Italian-Americans as nearly one third of Italians who immigrated to the U.S. between 1880 and 1930 came from the island.

next up, I'll do the Spanish.

I was just going to just mix it all around here, when you finish doing all the layers, you roll it up so I have a second layer.

okay.

I'm going to just pat it down and put egg wash And then the final step would be a Red sauce I just cover it all around the spinach.

I'm going to just do some egg wash and I just do it on the sides.

So what's the purpose of the egg wash?

It just stays so that the second it's like the glue.

Glue.

Yeah, sure.

I'm going to close this up.

Melissa puts the sketch out in the oven.

After some time, the kitchen is filled with a delicious smell, and I can't wait to taste it.

when you take that bite, you get the ham, the cheese, the red sauce, spinach all in your mouth.

It just melts into it.

Yeah.

And then I can see all the layers in there, the cheese and ham get some of the spinach, really cheesy and warm, mix really well with the tomato sauce and the spinach.

And the pastry part is so flaky.

I could definitely eat this whole slab.

Well, here's a thing with the Scacciata You can definitely use it for breakfast.

Lunch or dinner.

Melissa actually went to Sicily to train with Giovanni, a family friend who also happens to be a successful pastry and chocolate maker.

He then came back with her Torino to teach her the things that they don't mention in books like adapting to the climate and different seasons.

even with her training Family has been her constant stream of support.

my parents are amazing.

My sister is amazing, too.

Seriously.

And I'm learning as I'm going, I am not perfect, but my my parents are guiding me as well they support us as much as possible.

They actually supported me with this dream, so without them, I wouldn't have this dream.

While Christina talked to Melissa, I got to sit down with Claudio, who has a significant impact on Dolce.

His history in the U.S. Navy showed him how much he enjoyed Italian food, So much so that he made something for us today.

this dish in particular, even though it's not necessarily from Sicily, it's a simplistic dish.

Very easy.

It is basically bucatini with black truffle butter and some parmesan cheese.

it's a very simple dish to make, but it just goes to show you that you can make an incredible dish with very simple and few ingredients.

Bucatini is a type of pasta that consists of long, narrow tubes made from durum wheat flour, Traditionally from Rome.

Its name comes from the Italian word bucco, meaning hole Even though it may look similar to spaghetti, Bucatini is thicker and has a distinctive hole running through the center, which gives it a unique texture and makes it excellent for catching sauces to absorb flavors both inside and out.

this smells amazing.

I can smell a bit of the black truffle.

It's a little pungent in the way that truffles are very earthy and I can get a hint of the Parmesan.

I'm pretty excited about it.

Is there a way you're more used to eating it?

That I should, Which is a great question.

You see, we have a spoon, we have a fork.

Yeah.

Typically what we do is you just use the spoon as a guide for your pasta.

no, no big deal.

You just kind of do that for a little bit.

Gets a hold.

And I'm so pleased with this because it's such a simple dish.

It is so good.

I mean, it's an explosion of flavor.

I get a lot of nuttiness off of that.

The Parmesan cheese again.

There's a almost woodsy ness from the black truffle.

And I love the way you cook the pasta.

Pasta is cooked.

I believe it's called al dente?

Al dente.

Thats correct.

And I accompany it with some white wine.

it just complements, by the way.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Thank you so much.

In addition to the daily bakery, Dolce Caffé also does three dinners a month.

It's a four course dinner for 20 to 30 guests, and they're usually sold out several months in advance.

It's a tradition that's carried over from before Dolce Caffé even existed.

I think the beauty of it and the premise behind doing them is not only the quality of the food, it's getting to watch everyone out there on the tables that don't know each other.

Yeah.

Talking, conversing, is we have folks as young as you mingling and talking with folks my age.

It doesn't get better than that.

And they all say we had such a good time.

And how do you top that?

You can't you can't top that.

Dolce Caffé to me is basically the culmination of my wife, my mother in law's cooking, even to a small extent.

My mother's cooking all come to fruition when my daughter said, I think I'd like to be a pastry chef.

my parents brought me over to this country when I was about two and a half years old from Mexico.

they sacrificed a lot to bring us all over here.

every time I make a slight wrong turn, make a mistake, they'd be like, Come on, You know, like, we've got a lot on this.

We were doing what we can, but you got to put in your part to, like, do your best and But on the other side of that as well, even the tiniest, tiniest success.

they'd be like, That's awesome.

That's great.

Keep going, keep going, How does it feel to see your daughter?

You know, with this small business, to watch her maturation as a baker just get better and better and better is a huge joy.

And people because of her come here wanting to see her.

Hey, My goal is to have someone come in here and to feel a little bit of Italy, of Sicily of some sort, And that's what I've always wanted for people to come in and to try my pastries and savory items and to feel comfort and feel good and feel like, Wow, this is really good.

But she takes so much pride and to her for her to hear somebody say, wow, this was so good.

We love your bakery, you know, and they come back and yeah, Enrique It's just it doesn't get more satisfying.

Well said Claudio.

We learned so much from everyone at Dolce Caffé, and we are so grateful for everything Giuseppe, Melissa and Claudio shared with us, I can't wait for the next time I can grab lunch at Dolce Caffé