THE PISTACHIO COFFEE: THIRD GENERATION OF GOURMET COFFEE

Article written by Michele Sergio and published in IL ROMA on 11 November 2018

Coffee in Naples is not only ‘a tazzulella’ and cafe, dear to Pino Daniele, or the one made with the ancient cuccumella of Eduardiana memory. The fanciful Neapolitan bartender in fact, have, over the years, invented and proposed to the clientele numerous recipes based on coffee that have conquered Neapolitans and tourists. These are special coffees or, more correctly, called “gourmet coffees” much requested in Neapolitan bars. Today it is widespread to ask the bar for a nutty coffee or a Brazilian coffee instead of the classic espresso. If for a Neapolitan it is obvious to find this choice of coffee on the premises, it is not, however, for those who are not from Campania.

In fact, if an exception is made for our city, in the rest of Italy there is no such breadth of choice but only the classic coffee with small variations (for example, spotted, long, double). This confirms, where it was still needed, that our city fully deserves the status of Italian coffee capital. So if in the rest of Italy the situation is still in Naples we are so far ahead that we have even reached the third generation of gourmet coffees and, among these, the most particular is certainly the pistachio coffee.

It took many years to get the pistachio coffee recipe (and above all to make it convincing on the market and appreciated by the public). This is because, unlike the oldest hazelnut coffee, where the two ingredients can easily be united (considering that the strong taste of coffee does not cover that of hazelnut), the pistachio is an ingredient with a delicate flavor and when combined with the strongest coffee inevitably the latter covers the taste of pistachio.

After many years of experimentation, the right recipe has finally been found, which manages to balance the two flavors in the right proportion, to the delight of the bartender and patrons. And so it is that timidly and then always more insistently even this gourmet coffee is being imposed on the Neapolitan coffee market becoming part of the great family of Neapolitan coffee.

In addition to enjoying it at the bar you can also make it at home and there are many Neapolitan housewives who try their hand at preparing this special coffee by proposing it to family and guests.

The ingredients are obviously two: coffee and a pistachio-flavored cream.

The coffee can be made easily with the moka or with the homemade machine for capsules or pods.

The pistachio cream is made in two phases. The first phase involves the production of a pistachio paste (which is made by pouring 200 grams of sweet, toasted and shelled pistachios and 50 grams of sunflower oil into the bell of a food processor and chopping it all up to make a paste that will appear liquid); at the same time prepare the whipped cream (pour in a glass ampoule 170 ml of liquid pastry cream and 30 gr of icing sugar and mix it all with an electric whisk for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is presented creamy). The second phase provides, once the two bases are made, to join them by pouring them into a container and blending it all with a whisk; this is how the pistachio cream has been created and inserted into a small bag.

Then make the two ingredients we can proceed to the assembly: in a glass of coffee glass first pour a teaspoon of sugar (if you like), then pour a cup of coffee (Neapolitan blend is recommended) and pour the cream with pistachio. Decorate our coffee with pistachio grains.

When this gourmet coffee is proposed to guests, success is always guaranteed.