Ph. K.

Bio

I was born in Dominica by an Italian Mum and a German Dad; my personality, I think, was somehow affected by these two complete cultural opposites loving each other. I tend to be a control freak, but in a fuzzy, warm, somewhat irrational way. As an example, read my recipe for Tiramisù, rougly translated from Italian, which is actually the very one my mum gave me (at least in the ingredient list). Do not bother yourself with quantities, it is tiramisù, not TNT. Mum was never THAT precise.

I know one could easily find this in Internet, but hey, it is a question of dedication to Tiramisù.

For 6 persons: (more persons: one egg/100g sugar more, and more mascarpone)

300g mascarpone cheese (if you live in a place where you cannot find mascarpone, poor you. Change country.)

200g Savoiardi (imported Italian ladyfingers), but any kind of biscuit porous enough to absorb milk without samshing is fine, bear in mind that it must have eggs in the ingredients, no soy, or whatever.)

3 eggs

300 gr. sugar

some milk, some brandy, coffee (buy yourself a moka, and stop filtering it, it must be coffee, not water and coffee.)

powdered bitter chocolate

procedure:

put sugar and the red of the eggs in a bowl/robot/whatever, whip until you have a cream (do not eat it yet, be patient);

add the mascarpone (the more, the better, but beware, high fat content, actually it is cream of the cream of milk, transformed by some magic leprechaun into cheese, but it is so sweeeet.)

Put the whites of the eggs in another bowl and whip them until you have a very soft, light, white, foam (we call it "montare a neve", but actually it resembles more soap foam, but it is more dense, and is edible.) be careful, there is a soft spot after which you will simply break molecular links in the foam, so that it will collapse down to the liquid state.

Put GENTLY, I repeat gently, the white, snowy, delicate, fragile foam in the mascarpone cream. Did I say gently? The first time I did the operation I was not aware of the delicacy of this procedure, and simply dropped it in the bowl of the robot and switched the on button. 200 rpm is not exactly the best to keep the foamy consistence.

Put on your stereo, and listen some Enya, or Mozart, or sperm whales singing, so that you can relax, and stir delicately the white foam so that incorporates well in the cream, that will magically assume the consistency of a dreamy night in Naples.

In the mean time, your assistant (tiramisù is best prepared in two, like all cakes) will have:

-prepared some moka coffee (if it is for six person, get the 6 persons moka. Anyone should at least own three moka: for 1 person, for 2, for 6. if you are a lot into parties, I actually saw a 16 person moka.)

-taken a rectangular pan (glass is fine, no heat treatment involved, and you actually get to see the layers...) that can fit your fridge;

-dipped some savoiardi in coffee and filled the pan with one layer of coffee-savoiardi (mmm, it must be a bitter coffee, possibly of the Robusta variety. No sugar added here)

OK, first layer is done, pour gently half of the foamy mascarpone cream on top of it.

Have your assistant prepare a second, delicate layer of savoiardi, this time dipped in milk and brandy,(it must be a good brandy, so that the flavour of old alcohol that rested in barrique for some years can remind you that all good takes time, but do not exaggerate with the liquor, save some of it for afterdinners); you can lick your fingers watching the process.

Tip here, do not put the savoiardi in the second layer with the same orientation of the first: the result will be more coherent, and will be eaten with elegance by your guests.

Pour the rest of the cream gently as to cover the second layer.

Pulverize some bitter chocolate on top of the artifact (you can build a mask with some paper so that you can actually write things with chocolate, like "I love you my little papera", or stuff like that).

Put it in the fridge (4°C) for some time. How much depends on your capacity to resist temptation. I found that the day after it is much better, but I was never actually able to wait that long.

Bear in mind that the tiramisù is prepared with raw eggs, that should therefore be fresh, to avoid salmonellas. (if you have guests, that might be an issue).

------end of tiramisù recipe-----

And by the way, I just came back from a travel in India that has changed my life.