My Italian Favorite: Cornetto

My Italian Favorite

Italian Food is internationally loved. Everyone can eat Italian food. Pasta, pizza, meats, gelato, name it! We all love it.

When I arrived in Italy, my Tita was not there to benvenido me to Italy. Luckily, a good friend of theirs took me in. My Tita left me a note containing her very own guide to Roma. She gave me 3 euros enough for a round trip bus ride, her trusty chook chook (a Vodafone pocket Wi-Fi device), LUXE’s guide to Roma and an Italian phrase book. The last thing she wrote was,

“Have a cornetto and espresso for breakfast. Go to one of the BARS and always follow the Italians.”

A cornetto? A cornetto to me is Selecta’s packed ice cream on a cone. I did not like that. I woke up the next morning, jet-lagged and walked around the neighborhood of Testacio. I found a “BAR” and it had tiny pastries displayed. One of those must have been a cornetto. I asked for a tiny croissant with marmalade, a shortbread cookie with marmalade in the middle and a cannoli-looking pastry with chocolate in it. I also asked for an espresso. I don’t drink coffee, mind you. I had to try it for “experience”.

So! On that fine summer morning, I had a bite of each pastry I asked for and my favorite was the cornetto alla marmelata. The shortbread was too sweet, the cannoli had way too much Nutella in it. The little piece of sugary, laminated pastry with apricot marmalade was just the treat! After finishing the tiny piece of heaven, I took the shot of espresso and immediately felt drowsy. BACK TO BED.

My next encounters with the famous cornetto got better and better. The next one I had was in Cinque Terre, my first adventure destination. I would have a cornetto for breakfast or as a snack and each bite was appreciated. The best cornetto I had in Cinque Terre was in the town on Corniiglia at Pan e Vin. It was moist, soft, not too much marmalade and just DELISH. I would take the train back to La Spezia, climb up Corniglia just to have that cornetto again. I bought another for the road. Hihi

Sometimes, I would wake up and just get excited with the fact that I was going to explore a new city and look for the best cornetto alla marmelata there was. I did this in Frascati, Firenze, Napoli, Amalfi, Bologna, Parma, Chianti, Sardegna, Venezia, Modena, Palermo, ETC. The so-so ones would always be from Chef Express in the train stations. You could never go wrong with those. It was in Palermo where I learned to appreciate Nutella on everything, most especially THE FAVORITE , cornetto. I enjoyed every bite of cornetto alla Nutella in Palermo. I believe I had too much of it as well together with cornetto con ricotta. Now that’s another story.

BUT THE BEST was in Firenze at Bar Pasticceria Caldana. I had this cornetto alla marmelata to go. It was given to me fresh from the oven. While walking and eating the cornetto, I wanted to hit my head on the post for not buying another. It was soft, moist, not too buttery, not too sweet, right amount of marmalade, topped with sugar grains and GOLDEN. Every bite was blessed by the god, Jupiter. Dear Jupiter shower me with more of that please!

After gaining 5 kilos, I don’t regret eating all of the cornetto I consumed. Perhaps the pasta and the pizza made me feel bad but the cornetto. THE CORNETTO is an Italian MUST.

Fun fact!

The difference between a cornetto and a French croissant:

French croissant are crescent-shaped laminated pastries, less sugar, more butter.
Italian cornetti are not crescent-shaped (sometimes…), more sugar, less butter, less flaky.

P.S. Best enjoyed with an espresso

Ciao ciao!

Cara