My son’s friend, Ed, introduced him to affogato a few years ago, and I’m glad.

Affogato means “drowned” in Italian, and involves pouring a shot of hot espresso over a scoop of vanilla gelato or ice cream, and is quite delicious.  I’m glad to have learned about it because it’s an easy way to serve a lovely dessert on the fly.

If you don’t have an espresso machine, a very strong shot of regular or good instant coffee works, but, really, you can go to Marshall’s or Ross and get a stove top espresso maker for around $10.  You don’t need some expensive job from Sur La Table.  One can of Illy and a quart of decent ice cream in the freezer will make you dessert-ready.

Ideally, serve the ice cream in a cup and the espresso on the side in a little silver pitcher or creamer, allowing your guests to pour said espresso over said ice cream.

The photo above is of a mini-affogato we had recently at Pasta Pomodoro in El Cerrito – which you can generally order even when it’s not listed on the menu.