L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2023 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano LIFESTYLE FASHION FOOD ARTS ADVICE T he cornetto: a soft crescent of a p a s t r y , s o m e - times filled with jam, Nutella, even pistachio cream these days, and lightly dusted with pow- d e r e d s u g a r . I t ' s a s w e e t r e m i n d e r o f b r e a k f a s t i n Italy—usually eaten in a bar while hovering over the coun- tertop, waiting for its warm friend, the cappuccino, to help wash it down. But what is the story behind this iconic Italian morning tradition? And what makes the Italian cornetto—while sometimes called a brioche or croissant— different from its similarly shaped French cousin? The legend of the cornetto goes back to the Battle of V i e n n a i n 1 6 8 3 w h e n t h e Austrians defeated the Turks. The story goes that the local Viennese bakers marked the victory by making a sweet crescent-shaped pastry using flour, butter, eggs, sugar, y e a s t , a n d a l m o n d s . I t became known as the kipferl, which resembles the crescent m o o n , t h e s y m b o l o f t h e Ottoman Empire. Eating one of these pastries became a symbolic act of victory over the invaders. How the kipferl transi- tioned into Italy's cornetto isn't known, but the pastry l i k e l y f o u n d i t s w a y i n t o N o r t h e r n I t a l y t h r o u g h Venice, the established mer- chant port on the trade route. As the pastry descended into Veneto, it developed into a slightly different sweet. The ingredients remain largely the same as the Viennese o r i g i n a l — m i n u s t h e almonds—and the dough is laminated (a method used to fold butter into pastry) as it w o u l d b e i n a c r o i s s a n t dough. While the shapes, ingredients, and method of making the French crois- s a n t a n d I t a l i a n cornetto are similar, they differ distinctly in taste and texture. The croissant has a higher butter content, con- tains no egg, and has very lit- tle sugar compared to the cornetto. As a result, it's but- tery and flaky, and is only lightly sweet. A plain crois- sant can be eaten with jam, w i t h c h o c o l a t e ( p a i n a u chocolat), or with almonds, but on its own also makes a great partner for the umami and salty, such as cheese and ham. By contrast, the cornet- to has a higher sugar content, egg-enriched dough, and is therefore always eaten as a sweet breakfast item. The pastries offer distinct ver- sions of how breakfast can be enjoyed: the croissant con- jures up visions of lingering at a Parisian café mid-morn- ing, quietly watching city life go by, while the cornetto is e a t e n q u i c k l y a n d w h i l e standing at the bar, bites pep- pered with vibrant conversa- tion before moving on with the day. S o h o w d i d t h e I t a l i a n bar tradition come to pass? N o o n e k n o w s f o r s u r e . But coffee sidled its way into Italy via Venice starting in the 16th century. Initially, reli- gious fearmongers were wary of it, but Pope Clement VIII eventually gave coffee his blessing, and it slowly found its way in Italy. The first sips of the dark liquid were taken quietly in apothecary shops. This was during the Inquisi- tion, when the free exchange of ideas in public was made difficult by the threat of per- secution. Nonetheless, intel- lectuals began drinking it and had a chance to share ideas while consuming it. In A Rich and Tantalizing Brew: A History of How Coffee Con- n e c t e d t h e W o r l d , author Jeanette M. Fregu- la explains that spies and Inquisitors kept a close watch over these shops. As a result, coffee-drinking was usually done standing up, and with a measure of haste. By the 18th century, coffee houses had opened in Venice, and these e v e n t u a l l y g a v e w a y t o the bar as we know them today. During the post-war years of the 1950s and 60s, the bar became a preferred stop for a quick bite and cof- fee on the way to work. In today's Italian bar culture, while some take a seat to enjoy their breakfast, many choose instead to stand at the counter, perhaps a tradition carried over from those early days in Venice when the fear of persecution loomed over, or simply because they are in a rush to move on. As iconic as the cornetto is to Italians, there's also cause for confusion over the use of this word. "Cornetto" and " b r i o c h e " a r e o f t e n u s e d interchangeably, especially in Milan, where brioche is the favored term. But Italians elsewhere in the Boot will use brioche to refer to the Italian version of the French brioche, recognizable in the Sicilian- style brioche col tuppo, the sweet bun with a little twist of dough on top, which is tradi- tionally eaten with almond or coffee granita on a hot, Sicil- ian summer morning. There are also regional variations on the cornetto. In Ancona, ask for a "polac- ca" in the local bars. Named for the Polish army who liber- ated Ancona from the Ger- mans in World War II, this s w e e t d o u g h i s w r a p p e d around a layer of frangipane (almond paste mixture) and covered with a sugar and egg wash to give it a golden glow. Further south in the Cam- pania region, legend has it that the Polish influenced another type of cornetto. The "polacca Aversana" is a cor- netto dough wrapped around a pastry cream and amare- na (sweet cherry) filling. Its name is attributed to the Pol- i s h n u n w h o s u p p o s e d l y introduced the flavors in a pastry in Aversa, where it was later reproduced and popu- larized by local baker Nicola Mungiguerra beginning in the 1930s. How true the legends sur- rounding this mythologized morning meal are is up for debate, but today, a cornetto and cappuccino is shorthand for eating breakfast in a bar. Other popular morning offer- ings include the treccia—a walnut-studded and jam- filled puff pastry braid—or m a y b e a b o m b o l o n e , a cream-filled doughnut. But t h e c o r n e t t o r e m a i n s t h e immediately recognizable symbol of la colazione Ital- iana. Just don't make compar- isons between the cornetto and, say, its French cousin. Not to Italians! In the US, it's fairly easy to find a croissant in bakeries; a cornetto, not so much. For expats, the cornet- to is a reminder of home, of a tradition that calls to mind a m b i a n c e a s m u c h a s t h e food itself—say the word and one can almost hear milk being steamed and the rattle of cups and plates being laid down on countertops, while pastries are placed atop those too-small and plastic-coated napkins. An Italian breakfast is not meant to be the most substantial meal of the day, but it has its own rhythm and enduring social ritual that can't be compared to any other. JESSICA L. LEVI A cappuccino and a cornetto, the most traditional of Italian breakfasts (Photo: Anna Khomulo/Dreamstime) Cornetto and cappuccino: an Italian breakfast ritual

• Cover