Caffe with heart

Near my school there are many and I mean many shops, restaurants, cafes and bars.  I have one in particular where I just love their coffee.  In the last week they have begun to add chocolate to the coffee in this shape of a heart.  I don't know if they just didn't do it before, had run out of cocoa or what but I just love the heart!  You can see the mostly eaten cornetti con marmalatta. Cornetti seems to be a rather generic word for croissant/ breakfast pastry.  In northern parts it is called brioche...The croissants/ cornetti are much sweeter than those in France. Breakfast is a cappuccino or cafe (espresso) taken standing at the counter of the coffee bar.  It seems that most Italians are out to break the land speed record when consuming their breakfast which is minimal and often only a cappuccino.  They seem to slam it and go.  I have not figured out where people go to sit here.  It seems that women do not dine alone nor do many places have comfortable seating.  Perhaps that is why Italians can eat all of this sugar and carbs and stay thin.  They walk a lot, don't sit for coffee or breakfast and often for lunch take a slice of pizza and walk down the street.  When they do have dinner it can last all night...

Did I say dolce ???

Monte Blanc

Today a group of us from school discovered this restaurant near Campo Fiori.  It was the best meal I have had so far in Rome.  It was friday so we feasted on traditional Baccala.  Fish ( salt cod) that has been preserved by salt and dried... it is soaked for a long time to reconstitute it and then this particular dish had it cooked with tomato, onions and raisins.  It was fantastic.   (see more about it http://italianfood.about.com/od/fishdishes/a/aa110897.htm A little sweet, (but of course) with a tartness and a saltiness that was perfect.  The texture of the fish was hartier that a fresh fillet would be.  It was flaky with a texture.  I couldn't tell if it was only baked or if there had been an additional cooking method.  The complexity was simply divine. ( I am going to guess the cooking method was far simpler than I fantasize that it was).  I also ordered roasted potatoes, ok, these were wonderful.  The potatoes were sweet, the olive oil infused with rosemary, warm roasted and the residual oil was perfect for the perfectly crust bread that was fluffy inside.  I finished with a Monte Blanc (pictured above).  yum the crunch of the meringue and the soft cream one of my favorite combinations.  Actually, my Aunt Avril in Scotland made meringues once when we visited and served tow stuck together with double cream that was so thick it worked like a glue to hold the two meringues together.  This was so great I can still see them cooling off on the counter in her kitchen. I love double cream I can just eat it by the spoonful! Unfortunately we had to run back to school for an intensive language class in the afternoon so we couldn't linger, which was probably good because I was dangerously close to staying there until dinner or having a second helping of the baccala.

Christmas Dolce ! Panpepato

Ok so this little beauty is a traditional Christmas dolce.  I found this in yet another local bakery/ pastry shop there actually is quite a difference.  The women at this patisserie were wrapping these and I picked one up to look at it and I couldn't believe the weight of the thing.  They told me it had nuts and fruit and chocolate how could I resist.  Plus it would be informational for my blog so I brought this sweetie home.  The price was 20 euro a kilogram the weight came out to an 8 Euro item.  Pretty darn heavy.  About the size of a softball but flat on the bottom like a dome covered in hard chocolate.  I have since seen these without the chocolate,,, but after you go chocolate I am not sure you could go back...

The ingredients, I really wanted you to see the weight but it didn't show. In the US we are required to list ingredients in order according to how much of an item is included.  I will say I was fearful of the rum thing (second on the list...) but there is next to no taste of rum, after an inquiry it would seem that a few of the dried fruits have rum... just like any good fruit cake it is dependent on the artisan.  

The inside solid nuts and fruit!