by Rosario Scafaro –
Every morning I like to breakfast eating a good slice of bread with honey, a little piece of chocolate and most of all, drinking a tasty cup of coffee. I couldn’t start the day without having my breakfast in absolute calmness, and preferably sharing this moment with my family. Yes, that’s just so! In Italy we love to sip our own coffee, sharing the moment with somebody, chatting, laughing, and the more coffee is good the more we enjoy that moment . When I was child, about 10 years old, I remember that all the mornings, before to go school, my mother was used to waking me bringing in my room a hot, good, fragrant cup of coffee, and while she was coming up to my bed whispered “ Rosario, wake up, that’s your time”, but what was more she was sitting beside me, waiting for my last sip of coffee. How much feeling, how much love, how much sacrifice, how much calmness, how much joy, how many other things that I’m not able to describe I felt, I breathed and discovered through that motherly gesture, through that tasty, fragrant, intense black coffee, through that moment so magic, which is synonymous with love, friendship. It often occurs in Italy to hear phrases like “ Come on, let’s go to have a coffee” or “ I would like to offer you a coffee “, since that the coffee-time represents nearly a celebration and just for that, it’s a moment to celebrate all together or with someone considered a pleasant company.
Surely, all of you know the CAFFE’ ESPRESSO and its increasing fame for being the representative of the italian style life. Every family, every bar, snack-bar, all the most of italian people have got a modern coffee machine in order to taste and enjoy a perfect Caffè Espresso as well as the well known CAPPUCCINO based on milk and coffee, which you can get too by that machine. Personally I prefer my traditional coffee, which I love to prepare by myself, using my old and still working coffe-pot, named MOKA. The reason why I like to use the moka, is the fact that I can slow down the time while all around is going fast, thus getting to relax, since that the procedure involves a few simple things to do slowly and in the best way, furthermore because I wouldn’t renounce to listen the melody produced by the coffee which is coming out and besides to smell its scattered scent throughout the home.
If you would like to get a good italian coffee with your moka, let you pay attention to these following suggestions:
– Pour good water into boiler, until it has reached up a level slightly lower than the valve.
– Absolutely avoid combined mixtures with coffee substitutes, which substantially alter the success of the drink.
– Fill up the filter and use the edge of the coffee-spoon to properly fit the mixture, taking care not to press it.
– Light the flame and adjust the knob until to reduce the flame to a ‘minimum ‘. This way allows the water to slowly boil and to uniformly go up through the coffee.
– Keep in mind to take the cover up in order to prevent the condensation of steam to precipitate into the container, burning or altering the taste of coffee.
– Once you have got the coffee, before to taste it, stir it in order to homogenize the first more dense one with the second more clear which came out later.
– For better enjoyment of the cafè, do not use sugar.
One more last my suggestion: try to taste your last sip of coffee while you eat a little piece of good bitter chocolate ( at least 50% cacao ).
…………… That’s Dolce Vita!
written by Rosario Scafaro – www.EtnaMadre.com
FAMOUS QUOTE :
“Coffee is the balm of the heart and spirit.”
