Coffee between sweet and salty. Marco Baglieri of Restaurant Crocifisso in Noto and Stefano Primerano of pastry shop Sansovino in Milan turn espresso, either in powder or in beans, into a protagonist.
It is worth to stop at Restaurant Crocifisso in via Principe Umberto, few steps from the cathedral of Noto. Only few seats in the former “putia ro vino” – classic wine shop with kitchen. In 2007, Marco Baglieri, after having worked his way up for some years in the kitchen with mother N’Dina, he turns it into a charming and refined trattoria, where he is still serving generous dished of local farming tradition. He’s self-taught and worked with star-chef Ciccio Sultano. Faithful to the products of his land, the obsessive care for rigorously local raw materials stands out in his dishes.
Degreased pork tenderloin
ingredients:
sprig of aromatic herbs, coffee, demi-glace, orange blossom honey, butter, very old Marsala, black pepper.
preparation:
cut the filet into little 4 cm-long pieces and tie them with a string, in order to form a cylindrical shape. Then, we put oil, butter and aromatic herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary sprig) into a pan. We add salt and pan-fry the filled pieces. Once brown, we remove them from the fire and add honey to the meat drippings, blending it with the Marsala; once the sauce is reduced, we put the meat piece back into the pan and make them cover. We finish the cooking in the oven for 5/7 minutes at a temperature of 200°.
Potato and onion patty: We parboil some potatoes and peel and smash them. We dress them with stew onions, black pepper, grated Ragusano cheese and chopped parsley. We grease some conical silicon boxes and fill them with the mixture. Put in the oven for about 10 minutes at 200°.
Completion: We arrange the potato patty in the middle of the dish and spread it with demi-glace made of coffee and Marsala sauce; next to it, we put two filet pieces spread with Maldon salt. We complete with a tuft of aromatic herbs.
We move from Sicily to northern Italy, to Milan. But only geographically, since Stefano Primerano, master confectioner, knows very well how to prepare a good cassata or a ricotta cannoli. 
In Viale degli Abruzzi few steps from Corso Buenos Aires, he opens the coffee and pastry shop Sansovino together with Sergio Marinaro – confectioner, friend and former colleague. Welcoming and bright, the new bar offers a wide range of sweet and salty things. It is an immediate success. Those who come in perceive the careful attention to details, care for quality and excellence for every product and single ingredients, which are chosen and selected respecting their seasonality and land of origin. Thanks to its devotion for a tradition that he does not disdain innovating, Stefano brought a new personality into the Sansovino patisserie project, together with a certain vain of creativity and madness that is typical of the artist.
Zuccotto Moka
ingredients:
500g fresh cream, 200g granulated sugar, 500g Moak coffee, 4 eggs, 5 gelatine sheets, vanilla, sponge cake.
Preparation:
beat the egg whites with 100 g granulated sugar, heat the yolks and rest of sugar as well as the previous in cold-water softened gelatine on weak fire. Whip the cream and mix gently with (cold) coffee; add the yolks beaten with sugar and gelatine and then add egg whites and vanilla. Cover the dome-shaped mould with sponge cake, pour the well-mixed mousse in it, and add a second layer of sponge cake, leaving space in the middle for the whipped cream. Cover everything with a layer of sponge cake and put in the freezer for 24 hours. Turn out, soak with coffee and cover with whipped cream. Decorate to one’s liking and serve cold.
