When I was 11, my family spent a month in a friend's modest, partially-completed cottage in Tuscany.
We spent our day traveling through fields of overturned sunflowers, exploring adjacent towns and cities, and eating every type of pasta we could find.
My favorite food memory from that trip is my first taste of cioccolata calda, or Italian hot chocolate.
When my mother placed it in front of me in a small, peaceful café in the hilltop village of Trequanda, I had no idea what to think of.
The chocolate was shiny, dark brown, and so thick that it resembled a pudding rather than a drink. I wasn't sure how to drink it and started requesting a spoon to scoop it up.
But my mother promptly went into the café and returned with a pitcher of hot milk, which she poured into my cup to thin the chocolate enough to drink. The end result was still heavenly: delicious and indulgent.
More than 30 years later, I returned to the chocolate confection as a holiday present for my own kid. The first time I made it, her eyes widened in amazement (like I think mine did all those years ago),
and she instinctively grabbed a spoon and slurped up a spoonful.The texture and flavor of Italian hot chocolate are equally important.