Best. Dessert. Ever.

For many years I would order dessert almost every time that I went out to eat, mainly because it was always my favorite part of the meal. But in the last couple of years I've started to only order dessert on occasion, because frankly most restaurants do not have desserts that impress me. You will never see me order a regular piece of chocolate cake, cheesecake, key lime pie, etc. If a restaurant has done a special twist on those popular desserts, then ok maybe I'll try it.. but it's not that likely.

So it's not too often that I find a dessert that I think, "Oh, I HAVE to try that!". That was the case though recently at Otto in Greenwich Village, which is owned by Mario Batali. After a meal that consisted of Lardo (a bit too rich for our taste), fried sardines (meh) and duck and fig pizza (YUM), I was absolutely stuffed to the brim... until I read the dessert menu.

The description went a little something like this: Olive Oil Coppetta: olive oil gelato, passion fruit granita, basil syrup. It all sounded very interesting, but most importantly it had passion fruit, my all time favorite flavor. The dessert that I received also had strawberries on it, so I was curious if that was supposed to be on there or not (since it wasn't in the description), but either way it was fannnnnnntastic.

The gelato was slightly sweet, but mainly tasted of olive oil and was super creamy. The basil syrup was actually a bit salty, which although that was what MADE the dessert so amazing, I still wonder if it was supposed to be that way, or if there was a mix up in the kitchen and it was made with salt instead of sugar. So the combination of the tangy passion fruit granita, the salty basil syrup and the sweet strawberries all on top of the mellow, slightly savory gelato was in one word: perfection.

Since I'm curious as to whether or not the dessert was prepared how it was intended to be (were there really supposed to strawberries, and was the basil syrup supposed to be salty?), and since the dessert was so darn good that at one point I'm pretty sure I told Vlady to stop talking to me while I savored each bite, I'm considering going back asap to order it again.

Actually scratch that, I WILL go back to get it again. It was just that good, and I think it must be done in the name of research. I will report back to let y'all know if it's still the greatest dessert ever. Anyone care to join in on my research? Here's some more inspiration:

Mmmmmmm