Bitter as 'ammazzacaffè' and the recipe for Chiavari cake
The quintessentially Italian custom of enjoying a glass of amaro after coffee (the famous ammazzacaffè), at the end of a hearty meal, has ancient origins. Let's find out!
The After-Meal Nightcap: From Catherine de' Medici's Banquets to the Present Day
In the Middle Ages, the art of making liqueurs was already known to pharmacists and monks (mainly Benedictines) for curative purposes (to learn more you can read the post “What is a bitter and how to drink it”).
However, it was thanks to Catherine de' Medici , wife of King Henry II of France, that the habit of drinking a bitter liqueur at the end of a meal spread among European nobles. In fact, the Florentine sovereign introduced Italian bitter liqueurs to the Parisian court in 1523 to aid digestion and brighten the end of royal banquets.
In fact, it was already the custom of nobles, once lunch was over, to move to another room to continue the conversation while enjoying liqueurs such as brandy and cognac.
It was then thanks to important scientific discoveries regarding the fermentation and sugar processing processes that the liqueur industry experienced a great expansion from 1700 , particularly in Italy, France and Holland.
As always happens, the habits of the nobles gradually migrated to the homes of the people, albeit with moderation and only for special occasions.
The origins of the term "ammazzacaffè"
With the arrival of coffee on Italian tables, the ritual of sipping a liqueur at the end of a meal took on the curious name of "ammazzacaffè," with the purpose—in addition to aiding digestion—of eliminating the taste of coffee from the palate. Evidently, the coffee of the past wasn't all that good !
The coffee ritual at Liquorificio Fabbrizii
We, on the other hand, who love modern coffee dearly (and certainly don't want to kill it!), know how pleasant it is to prolong and accompany the coffee experience on the palate. That's why we searched for a blend that would pair perfectly with the flavors of our Amaro Fabbrizii: and we found Caffè 8 Note.
And it is always out of our love for coffee that we have resurrected from our family's history the elegant Belle Époque cups with which our great-grandfather Giovanni Fabbrizii once served coffee in his renowned Genoese bar in the early 1900s.
Finally, to further enrich the after-dinner moment, that moment when, drunk on food and wine, we all indulge in our most authentic conviviality, in addition to the amaro and coffee, we leave you here the recipe for a simple, authentic dessert with a taste of Liguria: hazelnut cake.
Yes, because hazelnut cake is a traditional dessert from our valleys, the valleys inland from Chiavari, where different varieties of hazelnuts have been grown and harvested since ancient times, an important economic resource for this area.
Today they are marketed and you can find them under the name of Nocciole Misto Chiavari.
It's very simple to prepare, not at all banal and, obviously, it goes perfectly with our Amaro Fabbrizii!
Ingredients for 8 portions of hazelnut cake (20 cm diameter cake tin)
- 250 g of toasted hazelnuts
- 150 g of sugar
- 4 eggs
- icing sugar for decoration
Procedure
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Butter and flour a 20cm diameter cake tin.
- Finely chop the hazelnuts together with a tablespoon of sugar taken from the total amount (to prevent the good oils in the hazelnuts from oxidizing with the heat generated by the blades) until you obtain a firm paste.
- Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites.
- Add the sugar to the bowl with the egg yolks and blend them together until you obtain a light and frothy mixture.
- Then add the hazelnut paste , stirring gently with a spoon until it is completely incorporated.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff.
- Then add them to the mixture one spoonful at a time , mixing with a gentle motion from bottom to top to keep the air in the mixture.
- Bake in a conventional oven for 20 minutes. The cake should remain soft and slightly moist.
- Let it cool completely before unmolding and then decorate with plenty of icing sugar.
