It’s been awhile since I had a restaurant dessert that was worth the calories, but the limoncello shortcake at the new Pacci’s Trattoria & Pasticerria at 6 Post Office Road in Silver Spring, is to die (or diet) for.
The cake, moistened with the lemon-flavored liqueur, is layered with lemon curd and topped with whipped cream and sliced strawberries, and has just the right balance of tartness, sweetness and booze.
Although the waiter said the cake was made in-house by chef Rosario Granieri—not so, Pacci’s owner Spiro Gioldasis told me later.
Gioldasis was hesitant to divulge the source—“It’s from a bakery that I cannot tell. They make it only for us. It’s a secret,” he said.
But it wasn’t long before he let on: Gianluigi Dellacio, owner of Dolci Gelati in Northeast Washington D.C., who provides Pacci’s and many other restaurants and stores with gelato, makes the fabulous cake for Gioldasis.
Dellacio was the head pastry chef at a former incarnation of Galileo restaurant in Washington D.C. and has made pastry for Bono, former President Clinton, Queen Rania of Jordan and even the Pope, according to the company’s web site.
For the cake he prepares for Pacci’s, Dellacio makes a sponge cake and then soaks it in simple syrup spiked with house-made limoncello. He also makes the lemon curd from scratch and adds a touch of limoncello to that as well. But not too much. “I don’t want to put too much alcohol,” Dellacio said. The cake is baked in a sheet pan and then cut into generous squares at the restaurant.
Gioldasis said the dessert is so popular he plans to start serving it at Pacci’s Pizzeria, his sister place at 8113 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring.
