Sometimes, good things just land right in front of you.
For Joe Gauci, it was his mother’s pastizzi recipe.
“It was Christmas time and I had just finished baking a bunch of Maltese cookies for my family back East, and everything was done, but I had all these ingredients left over, so I wanted to do something with them,” Gauci said. “I grabbed my mother’s recipe book, and out of nowhere, a sheet of paper fell onto the floor that I’ve never seen.”
It was the pastizzi recipe that would change his life.
Gauci, who moved from New York to Tucson to retire in 2011, picked up his mother’s rolling pin and decided to pursue pastizzi perfection. He now owns Malta Joe’s Baked Goods, the only pastizzi factory in America, at 3452 E Milton Rd.
A plate of freshly baked pastizzi.
Pastizzi is a Maltese pastry with flaky crust, traditionally stuffed with ricotta cheese or peas. After many attempts to recreate his mother’s recipe, lots of internet searching, and two trips to Malta to work with experts, Gauci felt confident with his pastries.
To start, he makes the filo dough using his secret recipe. After the dough is made, he stretches it out across the table, rolls it up and lets it proof in his custom proofing fridge, kept exactly at 57 degrees.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Gauci stretched a freshly proofed roll onto the table and cut it into 50 even bits. The perfect dough should have layers of flakiness.
A freshly sliced chunk of dough. Gauci measures his slices with two fingers.
“I measure them with my finger. Two fingers per slice,” said Gauci, “When I hire somebody, I look at their hands first, and I put my fingers to their fingers.”
Once it’s cut, he has about 10 minutes before the dough dries out and becomes unusable. He picks up a bit and uses his thumbs to stretch it into a cup shape. The thinner the walls, the better.
He then turns it inside out on his hand, which is holding an “ok” sign, where he then spoons in some Southwest filling, which consists of bacon, ricotta cheese and Hatch chiles.
“Next step, make it into a nice clam. Don’t crush the lamination, and then you turn it into a boat on the tray,” he said. “Bang, bang, bang. Take a break, come back, make some more.”
Joe Gauci stretches out some filo dough to make pastizzi.
“You got a group of people here, four or five, you’re doing over 1,000 a day,” said Gauci.
Production levels are high, and they need to be to fulfill all the orders.
“Restaurants and hotels use them for hors d’oeuvres,” said Gauci, “and we’re shipping all over the country.”
Business wasn’t always booming. Gauci started in a tent at a farmers market, selling frozen pastizzi since he didn’t even have an oven. Now, he owns his food truck and building.
“I get to boast that the bank doesn’t own the building,” said Gauci. “Yeah, I love that part.”
After his initially long search for a building, Gauci found an abandoned laundromat that was selling for cheap. He bought it, gutted it, and turned it into his USDA certified kitchen.
“I tore all the walls out. All the plumbing, everything is brand spanking new. Everything. Walls, insulation, ceiling, roof, all of it,” he said.
After building his dream kitchen seven years ago, he now has employees who are pastizzi perfectionists. Heather Hyde has been working for almost two years.
“It’s very therapeutic,” said Hyde, “It’s almost like a sensory thing.”
Joe Gauci (left) and Heather Hyde (right) work together to make pastizzi.
Since pastizzi making is so difficult, Gauci likes to hire employees with little to no culinary experience because then he “can teach them from scratch.”
Gauci also has nine food truck vendors that rent out his kitchen space as a commissary kitchen. He provides cleaning supplies and kitchen materials so the vendors can prepare their food before heading out for the day.
“Their rent helps keep the lights on for me, so I can concentrate on this,” said Gauci, referring to his ever expanding menu.
Gauci went away from traditional savory pastizzi to introduce his popular sweet line. He sells flavors like blueberry cheesecake, nutella, sweet cream and more. His savory flavors are also fan favorites, like traditional split pea and curry, ricotta cheese, southwest, and more.
As his business continues to grow, Gauci hopes to expand into grocery stores across the country, selling his pastizzi frozen for customers to reheat in their own homes.
“I’m very proud of my pastizzi, because they’re authentic,” said Gauci. “I eat, breathe, and think about pastizzi every day.”
Pastizzi are available for order, both frozen and baked, and can be picked up at 3452 E Milton Rd.
Joe Gauci posing outside of his kitchen. His mother’s rolling pin is mounted above the entrance.
Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.
