Zeno's Bar & Grill

My Italian friends just returned from their summer vacation and brought me a classic Bialetti aluminum stovetop espresso maker and several cans of my favority Illy coffee. I got a lesson in how to make espresso the real Italian way, including the secret for mimicking the tiny bit of creamy brown foam that floats on the top of the best espresso, called crema, which is hard to get without an industrial grade machine (I’m not talking cappuccino here; this is straight up espresso).

The trick is that you take a teaspoon of the coffee that comes out first—the strongest and blackest—and mix it with several teaspoons of sugar until you have a thick mocha-colored paste. Then, when you serve the espresso, you spoon a bit of the sugar/coffee mixture into each cup. It dissolves, and presto—instead of plain old black coffee, you have a sweet, delicious, picture-perfect espresso. Fantastico!

--Melanie