'Affogato'?

‘Affogato’ means ‘drowned’ in Italian. The word comes from the latino affocatum (affoco,-as, -avi, -atum, -are) and it is not a ...pretty word. If you are in Italy and ask for an ‘affogato’, chances are that people will not understand what you are asking for unless you are a little more specific. Somebody may even think you are not a nice person.

Many recipes in Italy contain the word 'affogato'. After googling the words “affogato + ricette” this is what I got: filetto affogato, polipo affogato (in the picture), cotechino di Modena affogato, uovo affogato, pollo affogato, pandoro affogato, cavolfiore affogato, broccoli affogati, and many more. The gelato affogato was also in the list: gelato alla vaniglia affogato all’amarena, gelato alla vaniglia affogato al cioccolato bianco, gelato al torroncino affogato all'amaretto, sorbetto alla fragola affogato alla grappa, sorbetto al limone affogato al limoncello and finally ….. gelato affogato al caffe (in several flavors).

In summary, the term ‘affogato’ relates to a preparation in which food is ‘drowned’ in a fluid typically a sauce, a syrup, a liquor, or simply…boiling water. You generally specify the liquid unless you use water.

When ice cream is the food and coffee is the fluid you get a gelato affogato al caffè. When gelato is the food and grappa is the fluid, you get a gelato affogato all grappa, one of my father's favorite dessert.

At tidbit, we offer a gelato affogato al caffè on our menu and we are planning to add more flavors! We are currently offering also gelato affogato al mirtillo as a special, a vanilla flavor gelato with a blueberry port sauce.

Stay tuned!