Come Go With Me

Hey Asher, guess what I did!

Mike and I are toying with the idea of a trip to Italy. In that spirit, I've been trying for a week to find a really authentic recipe for tiramisu (literally, Italian for "come with me"), but so far, no luck. This is my very own recipe, garnered from three separate ones. If you want to know the theory behind the technique, I'll be happy to tell you, but for now, I'd better write this down before I forget.

6 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup Marsala wine
1 pound (16 ounces) mascapone cheese
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 packages savoiardi (lady fingers)
1/2 cup very strong coffee & chickory at room temperature
1/4 cup dark rum (I used Meyer's, but I bet plain old Bacardi would do)
1/4 cup Marsala
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1. In a glass bowl, combine egg yolks, 3/4 cup sugar, and 1/3 cup Marsala.
2. Set the bowl over a pot with simmering water.
3. With a hand mixer, whip the egg mixture until frothy, light yellow, and roughly double in volume.
4. Add to mascapone in mixing bowl and mix with paddle attachment until very well combined.
5. In a separate bowl, whipping cream, 2 Tablespoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla until stiff peaks form.
6. In a measuring cup, combine the coffee, rum, and Marsala.
7. Spread lady fingers flat out on a cookie sheet, and drizzle coffee mixture over them to soak.
8. Gently fold the whipped cream into the egg and mascarpone mixture.
9. In a deep casserole dish, lay half of the soaked lady fingers along the bottom of the dish.
10. Top with a layer of cream mixture.
11. Add another layer of lady fingers.
12. Top with final layer of cream mixture.
13. Sift cocoa powder on top.
14. Seal very tightly and keep refrigerated for 2 days.

This dish must sit for 48 hours before the flavors develop and it's really ready to eat. So I'll let you know if it's edible after time is up. It's also definitely a 2-mixer-bowl recipe, so thank you Judy for making this much more easily accomplished with my Christmas mixer bowl!

Because I added Marsala wine, this egg and cream part of dish is technically a zabaglione.

Two ingredients might seem odd to you: mascarpone and Marsala. The mascarpone (pronounced mas-kahr-POH-nay) is basically just an Italian cream cheese, but I wouldn't necessarily substitute Kroger cream cheese for it. You can find mascarpone at Fresh Market and some Krogers in the cheese section.

Marsala is easy: go to a liquor store and ask for it. It'll probably be next to the sherry, port, and liqueurs. It can be used in a lot of cooking dishes, including brownies and chicken marsala, so you'll use the bottle before you know it!