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| An old favorite returns: Biscuit Tortoni, served just as I remember it, in a small paper cup |
Visiting relatives the other day, I was pleasantly surprised when a Tortoni was served alongside the coffee. I had not seen one in years. Like the Napoleon I wrote about not long ago, it seems to have quietly fallen out of favor, at least in my family, making its unexpected appearance feel like the return of an old friend.
Light and frozen, Tortoni is a classic dessert made from cream, eggs, crushed amaretti cookies, flavored with almond or vanilla, traditionally finished with minced almonds and a maraschino or amarena cherry. Its story begins not in Italy, but in eighteenth-century Paris, where it was created by Giuseppe Tortoni, a Neapolitan who owned the celebrated Café Tortoni. By the mid-nineteenth century, the dessert had crossed the Atlantic and became a fixture in Italian American restaurants, including beloved New York establishments such as Gargiulo’s in Coney Island.
Seeing a Tortoni again reminded me that so many of the simple pleasures once taken for granted have quietly slipped away. Yet all it takes is one familiar dessert shared with coffee among family to bring them back, if only for an evening.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli, August 8th, Feast of the Fourteen Holy Helpers
Light and frozen, Tortoni is a classic dessert made from cream, eggs, crushed amaretti cookies, flavored with almond or vanilla, traditionally finished with minced almonds and a maraschino or amarena cherry. Its story begins not in Italy, but in eighteenth-century Paris, where it was created by Giuseppe Tortoni, a Neapolitan who owned the celebrated Café Tortoni. By the mid-nineteenth century, the dessert had crossed the Atlantic and became a fixture in Italian American restaurants, including beloved New York establishments such as Gargiulo’s in Coney Island.
Seeing a Tortoni again reminded me that so many of the simple pleasures once taken for granted have quietly slipped away. Yet all it takes is one familiar dessert shared with coffee among family to bring them back, if only for an evening.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli, August 8th, Feast of the Fourteen Holy Helpers
