Staten Island Italian Bread

[AmyRF25]

Hi All,

Since our normal Italian bread place has gone out of business (Cangiano's on Hylan Blvd) we are now in search of good Italian bread - what are your suggestions?

Thanks

[BonnieB.]

isn't there a Royal Crown on Hyland Blvd.? I remember seeing one last time I was on SI.
The RC in Brooklyn has very good bread, imo.

[Tay]

Yup...Hylan Blvd is correct

[comestible]

Sorry to hear about Cangiano's, though I'd never bought their bread. The store was like a huge Italian-only supermarket.

My experience is limited, but I go for the brick oven loaves sold at Montalbano's, from Vola Bakery. Recently I tried Melone's brick oven bread from Gerardi's and it wasn't bad, but not as good as Vola's. I can't remember where to place Pastosa's Italian bread on the spectrum.

The rugelach stall at the N. Shore greenmarket sells some Italian round and long loaves. Haven't tried them all, but liked the round and the sourdough.

I'm sure other Islanders who get around more than I do will chime in. I'm all ears.

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Montalbano's
1140 Bay St, Staten Island, NY 10305

Cangiano's
6931 3rd Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11209

Pastosa
13210 Crossbay Blvd, Ozone Park, NY 11417

[BMartin]

Ditto about Montalbano's--great bread. The Italian bread from the rugelach stall at the Greenmarket is not to my liking though--its too dense. That usually means it has been over-kneaded and the dough was too dry.

[Tay]

Agreed...Greenmkt bread is way too dry. Almost seems frozen/thawed.
For Italian bread I like Royal Crown.

I also find the breads at the Net Cost Mkt to be delicious, tho' I've not tried all types.

[comestible]

Interesting. I don't mind the denser texture. It doesn't seem too dry to me, and it doesn't seem less than fresh. Just another variant in bread making.

The other day I bought one of those huge round loaves from Montalbano's and was surprised that it was day-old. I should have noticed how hard the crust was. Shouldn't have been out for sale.

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Montalbano's
1140 Bay St, Staten Island, NY 10305

[jen kalb]

If its a wet dough country bread like Royal Crown it is intended to have hard crust - very hard crust. the crust keeps the loaf from staling. We used to keep a big country loaf around all week turned cut end down on the cutting board. Cut a slice, pop it in the toaster and it freshens beautifully. Of course they shouldnt sell dayold unless they tell you.

[BMartin]

The well-known no-knead bread recipe by Mark Bittman from a few years ago in the Times--11/8/06--is a very wet dough and it results in a very hard crust. I have become quite a fan of the bread. It has, because of the lack of kneading, a very open texture full with fairly large air cavities in it because of the bubbles formed by the fermenting of the yeast. Kneading eliminates those holes. A dough without much water and a lot of kneading gives the Just Rugelach bread.