One Great Dish: The Pasty at Italian Bakery

This delight is worth the drive to Virginia, Minnesota

An illustration of a pasty from the Italian Bakery in Virginia, Minnesota.

illustration by kelsey king


Every fall my parents would gather friends in the kitchen for a “good ol’ fashioned pasty party.” Imagine: a lard-fortified pie crust crammed with savory ingredients and baked on a cookie sheet until toasty. The pasty at the Italian Bakery in Virginia, Minnesota, is a taste of Iron Range heaven. That crackling, melt-in-your-mouth dough is wrapped around beef, carrots, onion, and rutabaga. (A pasty without rutabaga is just not the same.) Don’t forget to grab forks and ketchup packets. This dish began as a miner’s lunch, which makes it easily portable and built for dashboard eating.