Matchmaking
The Cappuccino
by Carla Passino

photo by Nicole Maas

Peter Giuliano, director of Counter Culture Coffee in Durham, N.C., is a man of simple desires. “I like to have bread with my cappuccino,” he says. “Especially stale bread. You dunk it in the cup to make it moist. My grandfather used to do that.”

As did mine, for that matter. If lacking Italian forebears, however, the average American coffeehouse patron might fail to appreciate the gastronomic virtues of yesterday’s sourdough. Finding a cappuccino pairing they will enjoy requires a little more effort because the drink, despite its apparent simplicity, is a masterpiece of perfect proportions. With one part coffee, one part milk and one part foam, it is a feat of culinary engineering, a practical example of Isaac Newton’s Third Law of physics, which states that for every action—milk’s sweetness, foam’s delicate texture—there is an equal and opposite reaction—coffee’s bitter strength. And it only takes the wrong food—sausage and eggs spring to mind—to throw this carefully crafted balance out of kilter. Which is why cappuccino deserves subtle food matches. But which ones?

Choose an accompaniment that doesn’t overpower the cappuccino,” urges Vincent Iatesta of Caffe Pronto Coffee Roastery in Annapolis, Md., who avoids having it with anything “too savory, too sugary sweet, too strong or too spicy.”

Bearing this in mind, the obvious place to start a quest for the ideal food match is Italy, where cappuccino, together with espresso, has been the breakfast drink of choice for 60 years. A local legend says a crafty, coffee-guzzling Capuchin friar invented the drink centuries ago. However, cappuccino as we know it was actually created after 1946, when Italian coffeehouse owner Achille Gaggia installed the first piston-based espresso machine in his café. The most likely explanation is that some clever barista had the inspiration to whip foam into milk with a frother, marry the two to an espresso and—presto! Italy’s greatest gift to the breakfast table was born.

Throughout Italy, a cup of cappuccino is usually accompanied by what Italians call a brioche, which has little to do with the scalloped sweet common in the United States. For example, Balzer—a cappuccino mecca in Bergamo, Italy, which was named among Italy’s top 14 cafés by local culinary bible “Il Gambero Rosso”—often pairs it with its signature cornetto brioche, a crescent-shaped roll which recalls a French croissant but is more bread-like in taste and texture. “Our brioche is a leavened dough that is made with pure butter,” says Balzer’s Monica Sala. “It is pretty big and comes plain, or filled with apricot jam, custard or chocolate. The most popular one to have with cappuccino is either a plain brioche or one filled with apricot jam.”

Several thousand miles south, in Naples, patrons of the Gran Caffe Cimmino La Terrazza—another of Italy’s top 14 cafés—also tuck into cappuccino and brioche with gusto, except their brioche is different from Balzer’s. Although cornetto is also eaten here, cappuccino typically comes with the classic Neapolitan brioche, a lightly sweet leavened roll with a round or braided shape that recalls a French brioche tressée or a challah. “The vast majority of our cappuccinos is served in the morning with a Neapolitan brioche or a cornetto,” says longtime Cimmino employee Emilio Parrella. “Our brioches are baked in the oven then sprinkled with pearl sugar.”

Whatever their shape or regional recipe, either of these Italian brioches works wonders with cappuccino. Both share a smooth, bread-y mouthfeel that matches the velvety texture of the frothed milk. They are ever-so-slightly sweet, taking the edge off the coffee without killing it with sugariness. And they are quintessentially simple, with comparatively few flavors—the satisfying consistency of the dough, a splash of chocolate perhaps, or a drop of custard—that enhance the complex balance of the drink without upsetting it.

Much like stale bread, though rather more palatable to the average coffeehouse patron, Italian-style brioches work well with cappuccinos because they are good supporting actors rather than prima donnas. This is why bread-loving Giuliano wholeheartedly approves of them. “I’m inordinately fond of cappuccino and brioche,” he says. “I am a traditionalist, so I think nothing beats it.” He especially likes his brioches to have some lemon peel in them because it adds just enough zing to make the flavor interesting without deflecting focus from the cappuccino.

By contrast, Christie Katona, a caterer and the author of “Cappuccino/Espresso: The Book of Beverages,” prefers to drink her cappuccino with a chocolate-filled pastry. “I love to have cappuccino with pain au chocolat because the flavor balance is phenomenal,” she explains. “The roundness of the drink, the aroma of coffee together with the flakiness and mouthfeel of the croissant and the flow of chocolate—you have a lot going on in your mouth and woo-hoo! I am all for that.”

Chocolate and cappuccino is also the way to go for Iatesta of Caffe Pronto, who likes to have his drink with a “small piece of single origin chocolate,” and for Mike Perry of Klatch Roasting in San Dimas, Calif., who prefers his choco-fix to come in a soufflé shape. “Personally, I like a double-shot cappuccino with a strong coffee flavor, but I like the foam to be real wet,” he says. “A chocolate espresso soufflé is great with it. It’s a combination of brownie and cake served with molten chocolate on the side, and I love it against the milkiness of the cappuccino.”

Beyond chocolate, Perry, Katona and Iatesta agree that cappuccino works well with any dessert that is not too sweet or heavy. Katona mentions cookies and pastries. Iatesta is all for traditional Italian biscotti—especially those flavored with anisette, almond or dried apricot—and plain or blackcurrant English scones “topped with clotted cream and raspberry preserve.”

My personal preference runs toward a plain Italian-style cornetto because it has enough body to stand up to the cappuccino and its delicate sweetness highlights the way coffee, milk and foam unroll in the mouth. Croissants would also do, but not filled ones. If the filling is tart, such as raspberry, strawberry or blueberry jam, it introduces a new flavor that jars with the perfect blend of the cappuccino. And if it is very sweet—such as apricot jam or crème chantilly—it plays up the milk element to the overall detriment of the taste balance. For the same reason, I dislike matches with cakes, most cookies—except chocolate chip ones—or with very creamy desserts.

That said, I make my cappuccinos the Italian way, with whole milk and a mellow, 100 percent Arabica medium roast blend that has caramel and toasty notes. Picking different ingredients obviously changes the rules of the game. A cappuccino made with semi-skimmed or skimmed milk is better suited to accompany a cheesecake, trifle or tiramisu than one made with whole milk, which would overload the palate with creaminess.

And if milk matters, the choice of espresso blend makes a world of difference, since the flavor of coffee shines through cappuccinos with a lot more vigor than it does in other drinks. “There are more aromatic compounds distinctly recognizable in coffee than in any other drink,” says Joseph Brodsky of Novo Coffee in Denver. “And the mix of these compounds that emerges from each blend or single-origin beans affects pairings.”

Brodsky, for example, likes to drink cappuccinos made with a single origin Tawar—a spicy, earthy coffee from Lake Tawar in Sumatra, Indonesia—over desserts with a spicy edge. “Something with a chocolate base and curry, for example,” he says. “Anything with spices and chocolate would do, really.”

However, add the Tawar to some Chichu—an Ethiopian coffee from the Sidama region that has berry and floral notes—and the music changes. For example, Brodsky’s Tawar Rouge, a Chichu and Tawar blend with fruity tones that “reach the apotheosis in milk,” according to a review by coffee supremo Kenneth Davis, shifts the pairing’s balance very firmly toward fruitier desserts. “Tawar Rouge, or even a single-origin Chichu, which has great berry notes and some apricots, could do with any dessert with a citrus component,” says Brodsky. “It’s beautiful with those, whether by itself or in a cappuccino.”

My favorite single-origin espresso for cappuccino is a strong, incredibly balanced Guatemala Antigua with an intense bitter chocolate note, which I like to have with a plain (French) brioche or, quite simply, with a well-buttered toast.

No matter how many espresso blends I try, though, I have yet to find one that will make me want to drink cappuccino over lunch. I had long attributed this to my Italian heritage, which must have shaped my DNA to reject any milk and coffee combo after 11 a.m. So I was relieved to discover that it’s not just my bias. Neither Perry nor Katona, neither Brodsky nor Iatesta and, least of all, Italian-American Giuliano, ever match cappuccino with a savory dish. “I don’t serve it on meals,” says Katona. “I just wouldn’t go there.”

But the best pairing advice perhaps comes from Perry: “On savories, I’ll have wine or a single malt, followed by cappuccino on dessert,” he says. “All before a glass of port, of course.”

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