Festival of food planned in good taste

Brier Hill-style pizza from St. Anthony of Padua will be among the specialties at the MVAC fundraiser.

By LINDA M. LINONIS

Vindicator Staff Writer

YOUNGSTOWN — The aroma of freshly baked dough and tomato sauce wafts through the air in the couple of blocks leading to St. Anthony of Padua. On Fridays when pizzas are sold, customers need only follow their noses to the church, at 1125 Turin Ave.

People will have a chance to sample the delectable pizza along with an array of other church food specialties at the Taste of Faiths Festival planned for 5:30 p.m. Monday at St. Charles Borromeo Church hall, 7345 Westview Ave., Boardman, by Mahoning Valley Association of Churches.

Monsignor John H. DeMarinis, pastor of St. Anthony’s, said the church has donated to the event for a few years. He said the church has made Brier Hill-style pizzas since 1973 and is well-known for the Italian food.

Joint effort

Elsie Dursi, director of MVAC, said participation by St. Anthony’s and other churches is evidence of the interfaith effort and cooperation in the Valley.

She said MVAC originated a Valley food bank, now Second Harvest Food Bank, which sponsors a fundraiser, Taste of the Valley. Dursi said when she thought about that, she came up with the idea of Tastes of the Faiths. “So many churches have a food specialty ... pizza, Easter bread, kolachi, roast beef and spaghetti dinners,” she said, noting that the festival is a way to share them with people of many faiths in the community. She added the festival also allows people to sample ethnic dishes.

While the food is the focus, the event also brings people of many faiths together.

Recipe for success

Pizza sauce and dough recipes handed down from “old ladies of the church” are the foundation of the pizza project at St. Anthony’s, which helps support the church. Marian DeGenaro, a volunteer of 15 years, won’t call herself the chairwoman, but said, “I’m the one sitting at the desk.”

That’s the command center of the project. She takes the orders and time for pickup. Sound simple? Then she figures out how many regular, hot and with-sausage pizzas need to be made and by when. Not so simple. “I’ve devised a system and it works,” she said. “We would lose our minds if we didn’t have a system.”

DeGenaro said the part of the process begins when Monsignor DeMarinis tends his “huge garden” every summer. He grows the hot peppers for the pizzas. “We freeze between 25 and 30 bushels of red and green peppers,” she said. Sweet peppers are bought for the sauce, as are canned tomatoes.

The peppers are an integral part of the Brier Hill-style pizza sauce, peppers and Romano cheese, she said. This type of pizza, DeGenaro said, is from Italy.

An early start

DeGenaro said the sauce is made on Thursday. Everything else is done on Friday ... starting at about 3:30 a.m. when the dough makers arrive. Most of the other volunteers, numbering about 25, arrive between 5 and 6, when the pizza making starts. Their day ends about 1 p.m.

DeGenaro’s husband, Steve, also volunteers. “I do whatever needs to be done,” he said. “I make sure we have the supplies and check the ovens,” he said. “Older workers showed me the sauce recipe. Monsignor guards his recipes closely.”

Marian DeGenaro said the pizza project goes on 45 weeks of the year with some time off at Christmas, Easter and around St. Anthony Feast Day. “We make between 300 and 500 pizzas on Fridays,” she said.

Though the volunteers have specific jobs, they also fill in where needed. They work in an assembly-line fashion, using carts to move the ingredients and pizzas to the various stations.

On a recent Friday, pizza making went on as phone orders were called in. Some workers wore T-shirts advertising St. Anthony’s pizza with the slogan, “Often imitated, but never duplicated.”

The dough is made in 25-pound lots, the coordinator said, noting that mixers do the work.

Having a ball

After the dough was mixed, it went to the next station, where Mary Ann Julian cut smaller portions from the dough balls. On a scale, she weighed the dough; each piece was 15 ounces. “I’ve been here at least five years. I like doing any job,” she said.

Mary Frasco and JoAnn Schiavone shaped the smaller dough quantities into balls and let them raise for 15-20 minutes. Then the dough balls were flattened in pans and moved on to the next work station, where sauce, peppers and cheese were added.

Donald D’Eramo called himself “the greaser” as he applied a small amount of solid shortening to each pan. “I enjoy helping out. It’s for a good cause,” he said.

Mike Sovik put sauce on the dough. Though the pizza pans seemed endless, he did his work methodically. “I like the companionship. It’s fun to be here with the people,” he said. “I also have learned about Italian history.”

Connie Rosselli, who added peppers, said, “I put a decent amount on each.” Anna Mae Canizaro, who also was helping, said, “It’s like a family here. We’re all senior citizens. It’s a day out for us.”

Frances Nacarato said she is the “cheeser.” “Monsignor wants it done a certain way,” she said. “I get the right amount on the pizzas.”

Joe Criscione, a member of St. Rose Church in Girard, said he likes to help out because he knows a lot of people at St. Anthony’s. “They showed me what to do and I did it,” he said. “Each pizza takes between 35-40 minutes to bake. To brown them, we slide them out of the pans.” The bakers have the pizza ovens set at 375 degrees.

Jennie Marinelli, who was boxing pizzas and filling orders, said, “We might lose our minds, but they come back.”

A customer, Jim Shuba, said he has been buying the pizza for years.He pointed out he drove regularly from Canfield to pick up the pizza.

“The aroma is enough to get your taste buds going,” he said.

“The dough and sauce are so good.”