Did you know that Sophia Loren also wrote cookbooks? (Maybe she still does; she’s still alive.) She has at least 2 in English, Recipes & Memories and In the Kitchen with Love. Extend the brand, Sophe! A contributor to food.com kindly posted Loren’s recipe for tiramisù and I like it a lot so I thought I’d share. It’s easy, this is another “assemble, don’t cook” recipes, which are among my favorites.
3 eggs, separated. Use organic because you’re not cooking these.
5 tbsp sugar
6 oz. mascarpone (I use a little more, 8 oz.)
“1 large package ladyfingers”, about 36*
1 cup orange liqueur (most commonly Grand Marnier or Cointreau, that’s what’s available to me) (optional, I would think. This is served to children in Italy but then again they take a much more lax attitude toward liquor because in general they drink less of it but more often, they don’t binge like we do. It’s not uncommon to serve children a little wine with water or soda added, if the adults are having wine, but that practice is slowly dying out.)
1 cup espresso coffee, room temp. or cold
2 oz. grated baker’s chocolate
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
* I buy 12 oz. packages of Stella d’Oro ladyfingers, and each contain 24, so I buy two. This is no hardship because ladyfingers are delightful, so the remaining 12 are served with coffee when I remember that I have them lurking about somewhere. You may have to use slightly more than 36 ladyfingers in any event.
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This uses many bowls.
In a medium bowl beat the 3 yolks and the sugar together thoroughly.
In a small bowl whip the three egg whites until they form stiff peaks. I would (and indeed do) do this by hand.
Then, in a third bowl, add the egg yolk/sugar mixture, add the mascarpone, then fold in the stiffened egg whites. Make a creamy mixture out of this.
Make a tight layer of half the ladyfingers on the bottom of a 13 X 9 baking dish. Spoon over half the orange liqueur and half the espresso. This is interesting because most recipes call for dipping the ladyfingers quickly in the espresso, and the liquor, if using, is added to the espresso (dark rum, for example) or in the mascarpone, but not both. This may be The Italian Way.
Cover the ladyfingers with the mascarpone, then the grated baker’s chocolate, then half the cocoa.
Now repeat this: lady fingers, remaining liqueur, and remaining espresso.
At this point refrigerate for “at least 12 hours.” So make this in the morning if you’re serving at dinner, or make it the night before. Everything will blend and firm up nicely.
When you’re ready to serve, find the rest of the cocoa and spoon that on top.
A note about the header image: That is not the tiramisù that Loren’s recipe makes. If you want to do the filling double-layer, make about 25% more than this recipe calls for and divide and layer, as in the photo.
As far as the effects on kids, let’s do the math. 1 cup liqueur = 8 ounces divided by 36 ladyfingers is about 1/4 ounce per lady finger.
That doesn’t sound like enough to counteract the caffeine and sugar. Better pour that whole bottle of Grand Marnier in just to be safe.
Agreed, but it might make the ladyfingers too mushy. Obviously, a little tiramisù goes a long way, so you don’t serve it in the amounts you might for, say, an apple pie. I imagine children get even less. I’ve never been served a tiramisù in an Italian home when children are present, but I’ve seen them eating it in restaurants.
I will observe that at least in continental Europe you see a lot more kids in restaurants (and dogs too sometimes) than you do in the US. Three generations show up, someone brings a pet maybe, but it’s an unspoken agreement that the restaurant will serve them and everyone will behave.
In the US we don’t seem to do this. I vividly remember bringing a friend of mine to this local bakery. This friend has no use for children. The bakery is mostly takeout but in the back is this extended banquette, like a horseshoe that can seat probably about 8 adults. It was a very cold day so we decided to eat in. In the center of the horseshoe sat two stylish women and two stylish kids. The kids seemed fine. We took one end and the minute we sat down the kids transformed into hyperanimated creatures, crawling (they were not toddlers) around the horseshoe and under it, jabbering away, many insights and stories to share, while the women, presumably their mothers, smiled smugly on, doing nothing to restrain them.
I think if this bakery were in Europe one of the employees would have grabbed the kids, yelled at the asshole mothers, and had the whole quartet out the door quicker than you could say, “deux croissants aux abricots.”
Good point….
Clearly the solution to mushy ladyfingers and misbehaving kids is to pour the Grand Marnier directly into the kids. Or as parents with kids about to get on a plane will do, give them a dose of cough medicine and save the booze for the adults.
Grand Marnier is 80 proof so it should do the trick, if you can get them to choke down enough of it.
I appreciate the info on the header image, because that is gold.
I would eat Sophia Loren’s tiramisu, if you catch my drift.
Mr. Vuoto, this is a family newspaper.
Upon reading the headline, I literally said out loud, “shudafugup!”
Well, thanks to the dirty-minded commentariat, the next time I make this I am sure to say “And for dessert I thought we’d eat a little bit of my tiramisù…” and either I’m going to blush a deep, tomato-red or fall to the floor laughing hysterically. Either way an ambulance will be summoned, no doubt.
Is she still alive? She has to be in her 90s
Nobody’s perfect.
Close, she’s 87.