Affogato

"It’s the ultimate rule-of-opposites dish, made with deep, dark-roast espresso and simple white vanilla ice cream – a yin-yang culinary affair, resulting in a moment of instant bliss. It’s easy to marvel at the sheer effortlessness of it all with that first spoonful, and wonder why everything good in life can’t be this easy." John Quilter

I snatched a moment the other day to watch Maggie Beer and Simon Bryant do their thing on The Cook and the Chef, and watched them making affogatoes. Their individual versions were slightly different in that they chose different liqueurs to pour over the ice cream and I think maybe even the ice creams were different, but there was not a lot of variation. And so quick. The whole segment took less than a minute I'm guessing. So fast you didn't really have time to absorb it all. It was almost as if behind the cameras they were saying "wrap it up quick - you've run out of time." Which sort of demonstrates just how fast it is to make.

"like most good things, the best one you’ll ever have is probably the first one you downed." Juan-Carlo Tomas - The Guardian

And you know he's probably right. Although in the case of affogato there's not a lot that can go wrong really. So if you want to impress your guests, just serve affogato as your dessert on Christmas Day.

I know I couldn't believe how delicious something so simple could be so good the first time I had it. Years and years ago, with some dear friends we attended a session on coffee during the Melbourne Food Festival and it finished with us all being served an affogato. I have had it since at Florentino Grill and other salubrious places, but yes, tat first one is the one I remember. Like my first real French tomato salad. But I think this is because it's the shock of the new isn't it? It's not that the subsequent ones weren't just as good, or maybe even better, it's just that they weren't new. There was no surprise. No revelation.

Affogato means 'drowned' in Italian. At it's most basic it's one scoop of vanilla ice cream over which you pour one shot of hot espresso coffee. The ice cream must be very cold - I saw one recommendation of freezing the cup or glass and making sure the ice cream is very hard. They even suggested then replacing it all back in the freezer and firming the ice cream into the receptacle before pouring over the hot, freshly made espresso. Otherwise you run the risk of just melting the ice cream immediately and ending up with warm milky espresso. Only espresso will do mark you - no latte or macchiato or, heaven forbid, instant coffee. The common refinement, as shown in the picture at the top of the page is to also pour over a shot of a liqueur - one of those Italian ones like amaretti or frangelico. And there you are - done and dusted and in heaven.

But of course, chefs meddle. I mean people might object to eating something in a posh restaurant that they could make at home.

"The dish almost screams out for a little bit of attention, and as the ice cream and hot coffee are both smooth, the whole thing could benefit from a little texture and contrast, meaning that crunch is your friend here" John Quilter

And it is true that most of the refinements that I found had something crunchy sprinkled on the top or as a side to the main event - biscotti for example. Or caramelised nuts, crunched up biscuits, praline or even crunched up Crunchie bars.

I believe the one at left is from Cow and Moon in Sydney, which one year won the world's best gelato award in Rimini Italy for its affogato gelato. The actual affogato that they serve at left is made with single origin coffee and Madagascar vanilla ice cream (of course) with Italian caramelised almonds on top. For that's the thing isn't it? If you are going to serve something so simple then you have to make sure that your ingredients are top notch. Maybe somebody should do a taste test between something like the one above made with very high quality - and expensive - ingredients and something knocked up with Coles vanilla ice cream and an Expressi coffee. Would there be a difference I wonder? I mean I know there would be if you used instant coffee, but maybe not if you used Expressi coffee. Presentation - a beautiful glass or cup or bowl, might make all the difference and fool you into thinking you are eating something exclusive.

Jamie Oliver, who, as we all know, loves Italian food, has two variations. One - Walnut whip affogato - just adds walnuts - on the left, and the other is almost a trifle - Leftovers affogato - as there is leftover pudding - whatever you have - Christmas pudding, cake, tart, pie, on the bottom, topped with ice cream and coffee with chocolate sauce on top. You know - it might work. But then again, maybe it's really trifle.

Donna Hay took a more complicated approach by making it caramel ice cream and serving with churros. And indeed others used different kind of ice creams - mostly either a caramel type or coffee. But why would you use coffee ice cream when you are featuring the coffee by pouring real espresso over the ice cream, thus turning vanilla into coffee.

Then there is the quite different approach of pouring over other things - like Matcha green tea. It looks quite pretty here but you'd have to like Matcha wouldn't you?

Anyway then it isn't really affogato is it? It's just ice cream with a sauce. I mean ice cream with chocolate sauce is not an affogato. And in spite of some of even the most gourmet people not adding the liqueur, I do think that this is essential, and possibly what makes the whole thing so decadent, special and delicious.

And somehow very Christmassy.