Tiramisu For You!

Everyone needs a good pick me up* now and again. This user friendly tiramisu recipe will do just that, especially when paired with a good strong caffè latte! While we may no longer agree about all of the aspects of this recipe, I did originally get it from my Nonna. Mine always winds up with a bit more booze in it than hers does ;-)

*Quite literally actually, the term tiramisu actually means "pick-me-up" or "to lift up") 









 

For the custard:

• 6 eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup & 2 tsp sugar, separated
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 TBSP vanilla extract
• 1 lb. Mascarpone cheese

And the rest:

• 2 or 3 cups espresso, brought to room temp
• as much dark liquor that you're comfortable with (lol I usually use 1 cup of brandy)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• dash salt (trust me)
• 1 & 1/2 packs of lady fingers
• cocoa powder for dusting

Set up your espresso to brew while preparing the custard. 

In a medium pot whisk the yolks with the 3/4 cup sugar, add the cream and bring to a low boil over medium heat while stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Fold mascarpone into egg mixture in three or four parts, whisk until smooth and set aside.

Whip egg whites with 2 tsp sugar until soft peaks form, then fold into custard so that there are no visible streaks. 

Add your liquor of choice, vanilla, and salt to your espresso in a shallow bowl (for dipping) and stir to combine. 

In a 10x10" deep pan alternate layers of lady fingers (quickly dipped in espresso mixture) and custard. You should be able to get three full layers, ending with custard. Refrigerate, and dust with cocoa powder just before serving. 

Enjoy!

Pizza for sale, and good music too!

The New Music Bake Sale is coming up next weekend and to support boyfriend's percussion quartet [ensemble, et al.] I'm making pizza. Not just any pizza. My mom's pizza. Actually, I should probably give my nonna credit, but my mom is the one that kicked it up a notch.

home made crust

whole plum tomatoes (preserved from last august)

caramelized onions

olives

capers

lots of extra virgin olive oil

and a sprinkling of pecorino romano cheese

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I love leisurely weekend meals with the family when my mom bakes bread and we snack on cheese and home cured olives. We spend hours on end in the kitchen just chatting and drinking wine and eventually the antipasti bowl needs a refill. 

In the cold winter months she's been making a lot of soups. This lentil soup below is one of my more delicious memories of the recent past. And of course the pizza with fennel and goat cheese wasn't bad either!

Anyway, I'll be baking away next week preparing for the bake sale - it's at Roulette in Brooklyn. Come support local musicians!!! And eat tasty baked goods!!

My Nonna's Birthday Cake

This weekend was a blur because I spent it back and forth on NJ Transit. I was severely overdue for things like a hair cut and my yearly physical and a dentist appointment, so I figured I would just schedule them all at once to get them over with. Hence the trains. 

I took a half day on Friday and met my mother in Summit, NJ where we had a quick lunch and then went strait to my first appointment. When I visit my parents I like to also visit all my old haunts as well, but my all time favorite has to be Time to Eat Diner at the Somerville Circle. I had a hefty brunch there with my grandparents in between the dentist and the salon. Soooooo gooooood!!! :-)

The only meals I didn't eat on the go this weekend happened to be dinner. Friday night my mother and I tried out a Thai style sauce similar to Pad See Ew with chicken, mushrooms and peppers. Dad approved - and he doesn't like Thai - so I'll call that a success. 

Saturday was sort of an impromptu early birthday dinner for my Nonna. We had her and my grandfather over for dinner and my uncle and his girlfriend joined us. My mother made a simple chunky tomato sauce with penne and Chicken Marsala for dinner but the real conversation starter of the night was my tiramisu. 

I've been making tiramisu for a few years now. I've worked hard to perfect my recipe. I'm proud of my recipe. What did my Nonna think of my recipe?!     

Wrong.

She saw me putting the finishing touches on it as she arrived and had a list of reasons ready to tell me why it wouldn't come out right. I probably didn't beat the eggs properly, and did I use the right cheese? Just the fact that I didn't prepare it a day ahead was apparently a no no. 

Well. We served it as her birthday cake - what was I to do, it's the only thing we had prepared - and what do you know!? She actually liked it. She was impressed and actually told me that maybe she had been wrong to judge so quickly. 

I can appreciate that she has decades of experience on my few years preparing Italian food, but it was still nice to hear that she liked what I had made her. :-)