Parla come magni - speak in plain language, as simple as Italian food

Passport & Plate - Coffee of Teresa

Italy | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 4 photos

Ingredients
For 3 persons:
Medium roast finely-ground coffee (80% arabica, 20% robusta) ~ 6 teaspoons
Water ~ 100 ml
Sugar ~ 2 teaspoons

 

How to prepare this recipe
For the real neapolitan espresso you will need a good moka pot.
First remove the top and the filter from the pot.
Then poor water in a bottom chamber, which is also called a boiler, almost up to the safety release valve.
Insert the moka's metal filter.
Next add finely-ground coffee to the filter - while adding coffee do not press it, but make up "a mountain" as shown on the picture.
Then screw tightly the upper part onto the base.
Next place the pot on a gas stove with low heat.
After 3-4 minutes you will hear a specific noise of the coffee being brewed and its strong aroma.
Take the pot away from the stove.
Open the lid of the pot.
Finally add sugar to the brewed coffee and carefully stir it up.
Your espresso is ready!

 

The story behind this recipe
My acquaintance with the Neapolitan coffee took place on my first trip to Italy four years ago. Once I arrived on the Central Station of Naples on a sunny mid-October day, my friends grabbed me in a car and took to a small town called Quarto located in 20 minutes from Naples. I was invited for a family lunch in the house of one of my friends, Salvatore. There I got acquainted with his entire big Neapolitan family. It is a traditional family with three generations that live in one house on three different floors and have Sunday lunches all together.
However I was a great coffee lover before my trip to Italy, my visit to Naples appeared to be a revelation of my visions of life in general and gastronomy in particular. In this way I got acquainted with the famous Italian attitude to enjoy life and its simple pleasures, the attitude that creates well-known “dolce vita” irreplaceable part of which is the Italian cuisine.
Salvatore’s mom, Teresa, who then became my Neapolitan mother too, evey day cooked something special and she brewed for all the family her flavored coffee and poured it into miniature cups for one sip. The sip of brown flavouring nearly thick liquid was a concentration of revitalizing energy. It was a piece of joy melting in the mouth and flowing through whole of the body.
Coffee was starting my day when in the morning my Neapolitan mom woke me with its awaking yet slightly sweet flavour up. Coffee was a?companying every meeting with a friend and undoubtedly it was also a final note of every meal, the final note that creates “bocca al caffe”, which is the aftertaste of espresso that envelops the mouth after drinking Neapolitan coffee.
Teresa showed me how to brew the magic liquid accompanying it with explanations with gestures that the special attention should be given to the sound of coffee being brewed. I bought a mokka in a shop of the grannies and now I keep the best memories of my first trip to Italy while brewing authentic espresso wherever I am.