Affogato

The other week we had a few people over for dinner.

“Why don’t you make a pie?” Ryan suggested when I told him that I was buying pre-made fruit tarts from the pasticceria down the street.

“I HATE baking,” I replied, “And this isn’t America, no one bakes pies here!”

This is true – strudel is the closest thing to real apple pie – but luckily, one of our favorite Italian desserts requires no oven (a throw-back to our first two years here when we lived without an oven, and survived).

Enter affogato, the two-ingredient, super easy, and even more delicious dessert. All you need is a moka (and as I mentioned before, we have about five in all different sizes), or an espresso maker, some vanilla ice cream and you’re good to go.

What you do is make two espresso-cups full of espresso and pour each cup over a scoop of vanilla ice cream– easy as pie. (Ha).

 

PS – For those of you who have ever wondered this (Ryan), the difference between ice cream and gelato is that gelato is churned at a slower pace than ice cream, served at a warmer temperature so that the texture is softer and has a lower fat content so that the main ingredients apparently shine through more.