A hot chocolate whipped with coffee and cream, served as a velvety mousse. Bittersweet, worldly, it is the indulgence of Milan's cafés in the Romantic era.

Why this dish? Barbajada was THE fashionable drink of Milanese cafés in the first half of the 19th century, created by impresario Domenico Barbaja. Manzoni, a figure of Milan's intellectual life, moved in the world of cafés and salons where literature and Italian unity were debated over this velvety foam.

If you pass through Milan, do not miss the barbajada of our cafés. Hot chocolate is married to black coffee, and the whole is whipped with cream until a foam so light it seems a cloud. It is in these establishments, a steaming cup in hand, that the liveliest conversations of our time have been held — on letters, on language, on the future of Italy. Drink it hot, in small sips: the bitterness of the coffee pleasantly tempers the sweetness of the cocoa.

How it was made : Domenico Barbaja, a former café waiter who became a wealthy impresario at La Scala, is said to have invented this drink around 1800; it took his name and became a rage in Milanese and Neapolitan cafés throughout the early 19th century. It was whisked at the moment of service to be as frothy as possible.

The contemporary twist : Serve it in a clear glass to show the layers, crowned with a dusting of bitter cocoa and, why not, a shard of roasted cocoa bean.

Sources : Storia dei caffè milanesi, tradition de la Scala · Ottavio Cavalcanti, Il libro d'oro della cucina e dei vini di Lombardia

Alessandro Manzoni · Charactorium