# What's this pastry? Italian, lemon-filled short dough

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-pastry-italian-lemon-filled-short-dough/551351>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 25, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-pastry-italian-lemon-filled-short-dough/551351 "2010-08-25T01:15:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-pastry-italian-lemon-filled-short-dough/551351/1 "2010-08-25T01:15:37Z")

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Saw it on The Cake Boss last night. It sounded like it was called “pustachuck”. I thought it might be something like pasticciaco (dropping the last vowel as I’ve heard many New Yorkers do) “Pasticciaco”, strangely, gets zero hits from Google (though in about 5 minutes it will once Google’s bots scan this thread).

Anyway - it was supposedly one of Frank Sinatra’s favorite traditional Italian pastries per the show. And after never having heard of it before, I heard of it in two separate episodes back to back.

It was shown as a tart pan lined with a short (very rich/buttery) pastry, filled with something like lemon curd, and topped with another layer of the pastry.

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**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-pastry-italian-lemon-filled-short-dough/551351/2 "2010-08-25T01:26:25Z")

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[Pasticciotti](http://blogs.dailyrecord.com/italianfood/2010/07/07/pasticciotti-2/) - They are almost like little tarts or self contained pies with a flavored custard inside. Lemon, vanilla, chocolate, any flavor really.

I used to make them when I did that kind of thing for a living in a bakery in NJ. 🙂

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**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-pastry-italian-lemon-filled-short-dough/551351/3 "2010-08-25T01:30:32Z")

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I didn’t see the show but what you are describing sounds like _Pasticiotti_. Usually filled with custard but easily could be filled with curd.

Did it look like any of [these](http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=I8P&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=Pasticiotti&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1440&bih=640)?

Recipes [here](http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/pasticiotti/Detail.aspx), [here](http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/4405/Recipe.cfm), or [here](http://www.recipelink.com/mf/2/14955).

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**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-pastry-italian-lemon-filled-short-dough/551351/4 "2010-08-25T01:33:42Z")

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Thanks, both of you!

I can easily imagine " pasticciot’ " sounding like “pustachuck” to me, so I’m quite sure this is what he was saying.

Now I want some, dammit!

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**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-pastry-italian-lemon-filled-short-dough/551351/5 "2010-08-25T01:47:09Z")

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Well, I (and most of my customers) pronounced them 'pahsta-chot" - The chot sound somewhere between chut and chot and said with an emphasis on the ‘t’, if that makes any kind of sense.