Dear Italy: "Grazie" for the Affogato

I was sorting through a box of some photos the other day and came across a picture taken on my trip several years ago to Italy. It's a photo of me smiling serenely, sitting at a street side Italian cafe. I'm most certainly smiling because of the delicious lunch I'd just eaten: a crisp, classic pizza Margherita with a cool bottle of water. Sometimes, the simplest ingredients make the heart (and stomach!) the happiest.

Dear friends: If your only experience of Italian cuisine up to now has been pasta, meatballs and red wine, you are sorely missing out.

Don't get me wrong; I love Italian food, but it has to be actual Italian, not the Americanized versions. The Italians are masters of basic, bold, and wholesome ingredients. Case in point: the Margherita, which exemplifies the Italians' love of simple, fresh, clean tastes and impeccable cooking technique. Pizza Margherita, if you're not familiar, is a beautiful presentation of the three colors of Italian flag in food form: white mozzarella, green basil, and red tomatoes. All of that is perched nicely on a perfectly crisped dough. It's almost too pretty to eat, although I usually get along okay. :)

So you think the pizza sounds good? Wait for this. I have two words for you: "gelato" and "espresso."

Wait for it...

TOGETHER.

The heavenly drink you see above is affogato, or more correctly, affogato al caffe, which means "drowned in coffee." And truly, if I could choose how to die, I'd probably go affogato al caffe, too. But thank God it's the gelato (the wonderfully smooth, decadent Italian cousin of ice cream) doing the affogato today!

To be fair, since good gelato is hard to come by in the Midwest, and since the good gelato you can find is expensive enough to make you cringe, I often opt for good old reliable ice cream. It does the trick just fine. You can pick whatever flavor you like best, but in my experience it's always best to go for a good quality, simple kind, like vanilla, chocolate, caramel, or coffee flavored. And since it's also pretty tough to find good, affordable espresso (and the fact that the only weapon I have now in my coffee-making arsenal is a four-cup Mr. Coffee), I like to go for good old-fashioned Italian roast. It's dark and bold enough (just make sure you get a good kind!).

My favorite ice cream to drown in espresso (or Italian roast) is Starbucks Java Chip Ice Cream. Just thinking about it makes my eyes glaze over with adoration. For the coffee, go with a good Italian roast (any brand you like will do, just be sure it's good and bold) or stay with the espresso (if you can stomach the cost and have a way to make it). Right now, we've got Trader Joe's Whole Bean Decaf, which is wonderful because it tastes great and is perfect for an evening treat. A word of advice: invest in a coffee grinder and buy only whole-bean coffee. Trust me, it tastes about a billion times better and fresher than the already ground stuff.

The recipe for affogato is probably the simplest one you'll ever see:



Affogato al Caffe
Serves: 2-4 (depending on how gluttonous you're feeling. Ours ALWAYS serves only two.)
Total time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

•  2-4 c. freshly brewed espresso or bold, dark roast coffee
• 1/2-1 c. gelato or ice cream, your choice
• 2-4 coffee mugs (depending, of course, on how many people you're serving)

Steps

1. Into each mug, scoop 1/4-1/2 c. gelato or ice cream.
2. On top of the gelato/ice cream, pour 1 c. hot espresso/coffee.
3. Enjoy!

I used my favorite Starbucks mug, found new with tags for 50 cents at a garage sale!.

I hope you enjoy! This is a great treat to have in your back pocket: it's easy, cheap, super tasty, and even has a fancy Italian name so that you can impress your friends and family. :)

Until next time!

-Betsey