Tiramisu

Ingredients

• Mascarpone — cold500 g
• Egg yolks4
• Egg whites2
• Sugar100 g
• Savoiardi300 g
• Strong espresso — cooled350 ml
• Marsala — optional2 tbsp
• Cocoa powderto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Whisk the yolks with half the sugar over a pan of boiling water, without touching the water, until pale and thick — about seven minutes. Take it off and cool to room temperature.

   10 min

2. 2

   Fold the cold mascarpone into the cooled yolks with a spoon rather than a mixer. A mixer breaks the fat and the cream turns grainy — the first place tiramisu usually fails.

   5 min

3. 3

   Whip the whites with the rest of the sugar to firm peaks and fold them into the cream in three additions, lifting from underneath.

   6 min

4. 4

   Mix the coffee with the marsala. Dip each savoiardo for one second a side and lay them in a tight layer in the dish.

   6 min

5. 5

   Spread half the cream, level it, then repeat the biscuit and cream layers. Cover and refrigerate for at least six hours, better overnight.

   5 min

6. 6

   Dust with cocoa through a sieve right before serving. Do it in advance and the cocoa takes on moisture and goes blotchy.

About the dish

Tiramisu is younger than it looks: the first written mentions are from the 1970s, in the Veneto. There are several classical versions, and the argument is mostly about eggs — raw, pasteurised, or turned into zabaglione.

Here the yolks are whisked over steam to 70 °C. That is safe, and it also gives the cream a body that raw yolks never have.

The biscuits are dipped for one second. Savoiardi drink instantly, and the difference between soaked and ruined is literally a count of two.

Worth knowing

• — The mascarpone has to be cold and the yolks at room temperature. The other way round and the cream separates.
• — The coffee should be stronger than you would drink: the cream mutes it almost entirely.
• — Tiramisu only cuts cleanly after a night in the fridge. At six hours it tastes right but slumps on the plate.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

10 g

Fat

34 g

Carbs

42 g

More from Italy

• Spaghetti carbonara — Pasta from four ingredients: guanciale, eggs, pecorino and pepper. There is no cream in it and never was.
• Risotto alla milanese — A saffron risotto built on stock and near-constant stirring, which is what pulls the starch out of the rice and makes it creamy.
• Pesto alla genovese — Basil ground with garlic and pine nuts. No heat and no blender — a mortar and a cool room.