It’s been a whirlwind year for Hevreh Ensemble with concerts and residencies throughout the United States and the release of our new album: A Path of Light on the Ansonica Label and PARMA Recordings. and distributed by NAXOs of America. We are thrilled that it has been named one of the Top Ten albums of the year by Textura, the online publication. As the year comes to an end, we are finishing up plans for our tour to China in March sponsored by PARMA Recordings and then on to Argentina for the summer of 2020 where we will be accompanied by my daughter singer Alicia DePaolo. Our compositions will be interspersed with Cantillation from the Book of Lamentation to commemorate the observance of Tisha B’Av.

After I teach at Hofstra University, we often rehearse on Friday evenings at our keyboardist Adam Morrison’s Hell’s Kitchen studio. A few weeks before Christmas we were trying a new composition that Jeff had just completed for an upcoming concert at the FDR Library and Museum in Hyde Park that will be held in January. The piece titled “Thunder’s Warning”, includes a part for the beautiful new Native American Flute that I recently purchased from our flute maker Danny Bigay. Sponsored by a grant from Hofstra University’s Cultural Center, Danny performed in a concert with us in November.

The morning after our rehearsal, I made my yearly pilgrimage to DiPalo’s Fine Foods in Little Italy to stock up on supplies for our traditional Italian Christmas Day dinner.

DiPalo’s Fine Foods, located in the heart of Little Italy on the corner of Grand and Mott Streets is traditionally packed as the holidays near. The store has been in business since 1925 and sells some of the freshest and most delicious cheese in New York City. I arrived at 10 AM thinking that I might beat the crowds, but as I opened the door to the store and saw the people assembled, I realized that I was in for a long wait. I dutifully took my number and joined a group of people leaning against huge boxes of cheese. This included an elderly local woman from the neighborhood and a young woman who had made a special trip like myself. The three of us quickly bonded as we discussed DiPalo’s wonderful ingredients and our favorite recipes. A woman brazenly cut in front of the line, saying that she was not buying much and I saw a true New York City story unfolding before my eyes! Not only did this person not wait her turn, she made the sacrosanct mistake of complaining to owner Lou DiPalo that the wait was too long.

Lou sized this woman up and I eagerly awaited his comment. He acidly commented: “Lady, I am 67 years old and I am not going to kill myself. If I want to take my time and talk to my customers and you don’t like it, you can just leave right now!”

The woman then unbelievably tried to talk to the group of us of leaning on the cheese boxes trying to pretend that nothing was amiss. The elderly woman muttered under her breath: “She better stop taking right now, or I am going to lose my temper on her!”

All of the this made the long wait of about an hour entertaining and the prize of course is that when it is finally your turn, you get to talk to Lou, Sal or Marie DiPalo or one of their other patient workers and they always feed you samples of the cheese. This day I bought store made mozzarella and ricotta and received tastes from the percorino, parmesan and grana padano cheese that I also bought. Another woman in the store pointed out that a shipment of fresh Italian bread had just arrived from the Sullivan Street Bakery, I grabbed a loaf of the crusty fragrant bread and then I remembered that I also needed to purchase the freshly made lobster and spinach ravioli for our Christmas feast!

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with my daughter Alicia and her partner Katie with some of our traditional dishes that are requested each year: lobster and spinach ravioli with fresh marinara sauce and sweet basil, eggplant rollantini, chicken breasts with a sour dough, roast chestnut and pecan stuffing, lemon almond greens and roasted yams with rosemary and red onions. For good measure, we also had an apple, ginger cranberry chutney!

After this meal, we needed some time to recoup with a few rounds of the game Banana Grams and then sitting around our cozy wood stove, we enjoyed a number of desserts. One requested dessert by Alicia’s partner Katie, is an Italian apple crumb tart. Adapted from the cookbook Dolce Italiano, it is part apple crumb pie and Italian torta and with it’s lemony sour cream filling, even after a lovely huge feast, is surprisingly refreshing!

Best Wishes for a Healthy and Happy New Year!

By Judith Dansker December 27, 2019

Italian Apple Crumb Tart – Adapted From Dolce Italiano by Gina DePalma

For the Crust:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup( 1 ½ sticks/6 ounces unsalted butter, cold and cut into ¼ inch cubes

1 large egg yolk

¼ ice water , plus a few tablespoons as needed

For the Topping:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons( ¾ stick, 3 ounces unsalted butter, cold and cut into ¼ inch cubes

3 tablespoons sour cream or crème fraiche

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Filling:

¼ cup sugar

3 large egg yolks\1 tablespoon flour

5 tablespoons sour cream or creme fraiche

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3-4 baking apples, such as Rome Cortland, Macintosh Golden Delicious or Empire. I used Honey Crisp Apples.

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice.

To make the crust: Place the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add the cubed butter and pulse until butter is in tiny bits/ Add the egg yolk and ice water and pulse until the dough begins to gather. If needed, add a bit more water until the dough comes together. Form the dough into a ball, cover in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

Bring the dough to room temperature and roll on a floured surface to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Place a 10 inch spring form pan over and trace around the edge of the pan leaving a 1 inch border of dough. Place the circle of dough in the pan and press up the sides of the pan about 1 ½ inches. Place the shell in the refrigerator while you make the topping and the filling.

Topping: Place flour, brown sugar, sugar ginger, nutmeg and salt in bowl of the food processor. Process briefly to combine, then add cold butter and process until butter disappears into the dry ingredients. Add the sour cream and vanilla and pulse to form a crumbly texture.

Make the filling: Reserve 2 tablespoons of the sugar for the apples. Fit an electric mixer with the paddle attachment and beat the egg yolks and remaining sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Switch to low speed and beat in the flour, followed by the sour cream and vanilla extract.

Preheat the oven to 350 and position a rack in the center.

To assemble: Peel, quarter and thinly slice the apples. There should be about 4 cups of apples. Place slices into a large bowl and sprinkle with the lemon juice and reserved sugar. Place apple slices in tart shell in an even layer. Pour filling over and sprinkle the entire surface with the topping. If any of the crust is visible, gently fold it over the surface of the tart.

Place the spring form on a baking sheet ( I also loosely wrapped a piece of foil around the pan to avoid leaks). Bake for 50-60 minutes. The tart is done when the topping is a deep golden brown and bubbling juices have thickened. Remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for about 25 minutes, then carefully remove sides of the pan.

Enjoy!