Recipe of the Month: Tiramisu Italiano

Last Updated on February 12, 2013

With Italian routes and Valentine’s Day coming up, we couldn’t think of a better dish for you to make for your sweetheart than Tiramisu.  There are, literally, as many recipes for Tiramisu as there are Italian cooks. Many of them are excellent. This one is reasonably authentic, reasonably simple – and superb.

Ingredients

• 7 egg yolks
• ½ cup [115 g] sugar
• 1/3 cup [80 ml] marsala, plus 2 tablespoons [30 ml]
• 8 ounces [250 g] mascarpone, room temperature
• 1 cup [250 ml] heavy cream
• 1 cup [250 ml] brewed espresso or VERY strong coffee
• 1 ounce [30 g] dark chocolate
• ¼ cup [60 ml] rum
• 1 teaspoon [5 ml] good quality vanilla extract
• 48 lady fingers (commercially packaged is fine)
• ¼ cup [60 ml] unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

Using a whisk and a lot of muscle power or a hand-held electric beater, cream together the egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) a pot of simmering water. Add the 1/3 cup marsala and continue to whisk until the mixture is thick and doubled in volume. This is basically a zabaglione. (If you’re already tired, you can chill this and serve it over fresh berries with a very happy result.)

Remove from the heat and stir in the mascarpone until thoroughly blended. In a chilled bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream gently into the mascarpone mixture. Chill until needed.

In a small saucepan, combine the espresso, chocolate, rum, vanilla and remaining marsala.

Heat gently and stir to dissolve the chocolate. Let the mixture cool down for ten or fifteen minutes.

Quickly dip each ladyfinger in the chilled coffee mixture and arrange in a single layer in a 9” x 13”[23 cm x 33 cm] glass baking dish. Do not soak thecookies or they will become too wet – it’s a quickdip, then out. Spread half the mascarpone creamevenly on top of the dipped ladyfingers. Repeatwith a second layer of dipped ladyfingers and theremaining mascarpone cream. Sift or carefullysprinkle cocoa powder over the top. Refrigerate forat least two hours before serving.