Tiramisu
I had a love affair with tiramisu years before I’d ever been to Italy. What’s not to love about this rich, creamy, coffee-infused delight? Once I was actually on Italian soil, it was game over, I sampled tiramisu all the way across the country. The best I ever had was in a restaurant in Vernazza, a tiny town on the Ligurian coast (part of a group of five coastal towns known as Cinque Terra). Maybe it was the dessert, or maybe it was the gorgeous surroundings, but we seriously considered staying there to raise our family (I was 5 months pregnant with our daughter at the time).
Even though I love it, I haven’t actually made tiramisu very many times, but when friends invited us over for risotto on Sunday night, I thought it would be a fitting accompaniment.
I searched the internet for a recipe that sounded good and finally settled on this one. It doesn’t call for the raw eggs that most recipes do (something I wanted to avoid because the kids would be eating it), and it was quick and easy to put together. (Edited to add: I dipped the ladyfingers into the coffee mixture individually rather than sprinkling it over top of them to ensure that they would be uniformly moist).
It wasn’t quite as fabulous as the one I had in Vernazza (I think everything probably tastes better there), but I will definitely be making this one again.
Cheryl, it’s morning here and I’m already thinking dessert due to your recipe and photo. Ha. I was going to suggest if you do want to use raw eggs, we can now get raw pasteurized eggs — would you still prefer to avoid them? I do use these pasteurized eggs to make aioli and last night I used one to make a fresh salad dressing for a Belgian endive, walnut and Stilton cheese salad. Just a thought. Again, lovely post.
That tiramisu looks delicious. What’s not to like about creamy foods. They’re total comfort foods as far as I’m concerned. I’ve heard fabulous things about Cinque Terra. I’ve now put it on my list of places to visit.
Weird, I replied to you guys last night, but it didn’t post for some reason.
Lu – I probably could use pasteurized eggs, but I’m also a bit squeamish about raw eggs in the first place (can’t eat eggs that are even slightly jiggly), so I don’t miss them at all.
Your salad sounds amazing.
Carla – You should definitely go to Cinque Terra, you’d love it!
Cheryl — funny about the eggs. Well, what I mean is that most of the foods I do not care for have way more to do with “consistency” of the food than the taste. I don’t like certain sensations in my mouth as opposed to taste. So I do indeed understand the “egg thing”. On another note, I still can’t get over the perfect looking aebleskiver that you made. Did you know that historically they were turned over with a knitting needle?
Lu – I was surprised that the aebleskiver turned out as well as they did. I’ve heard of people using crochet hooks to turn them, but I don’t think I’d be able to do it with a knitting needle – I was barely able to do it with two forks!