Hal­cian Pierre

Years ago, my friend and I hap­pened up­on a love­ly restau­rant in Co­corite, where we in­dulged in an Ital­ian feast of de­lights that still plea­sur­ably haunts my mem­o­ries (and taste buds). My dessert of choice that night was none oth­er than tiramisu, a de­li­cious­ly deca­dent "pick me up" dessert of strong cof­fee, Kahlua and choco­late. The main in­gre­di­ent how­ev­er, was a de­lec­tably flavoured mas­car­pone cheese, and it's one that I've seen used a lot on tele­vi­sion � via the Food Net­work.

What is mas­car­pone? Ac­tu­al­ly prou­nounced "mars-ca-pone-ay", it's a triple-cr�me cheese, made from a gen­er­al­ly low-fat (25%) con­tent fresh cream. It's made from the milk of cows that have been fed spe­cial grass­es filled with fresh herbs and flow­ers � a spe­cial di­et that cre­ates a unique taste of­ten de­scribed as fresh and de­li­cious, creamy and slight­ly sweet from the cream it's made of. When it comes down to it, mas­car­pone re­al­ly is just thick­ened cream that's on its way to turn­ing in­to but­ter, so, tech­ni­cal­ly, it's not re­al­ly "cheese" at all. It's made from on­ly two in­gre­di­ents, whole cream and cit­ric or tar­tar­ic acid (to thick­en the cream). The clos­est cousins to mas­car­pone are prob­a­bly Eng­lish clot­ted cream and French creme fraiche.

Though not reg­u­lar­ly seen in our lo­cal gro­ceries, you can find it in spe­cial­ty stores that fea­ture gourmet-type in­gre­di­ents. It's usu­al­ly sold in plas­tic con­tain­ers with tight fit­ting lids, but once opened, its shelf life is very short, and so use it all of you can. One easy way to use it all is in this week's recipe for tiramisu, which I know you are go­ing to love.

Easy Tiramisu

In­gre­di­ents

�2 500g (rough­ly 2 cups)

mas­car­pone cheese (found at Gourmet Ge­nie)

�2 2 ta­ble­spoons cast­er sug­ar

�2 400mls (1 3/4 cups) fresh­ly brewed strong cof­fee, cooled

�2 2 ta­ble­spoons Tia Maria or

Kahlua (op­tion­al)

�2 One 250g pack­et la­dyfin­ger bis­cuits (found at Gourmet Ge­nie)

�2 80g (ap­prox­i­mate­ly 6 ta­ble­spoons) good qual­i­ty dark choco­late, grat­ed.

Method

1. Beat the mas­car­pone cheese and cast­er sug­ar in a medi­um mix­ing bowl with elec­tric beat­ers un­til soft peaks form. Set aside.

2. Com­bine the cof­fee and Tia Maria or Kahlua (if us­ing) in a large bowl.

3. Dip 1/2 the la­dyfin­ger bis­cuits quick­ly in­to the cof­fee mix­ture and then arrange over the base of a 1.25-1itre (5-cup) serv­ing dish or six 250mls (1-cup) in­di­vid­ual serv­ing glass­es.

4. Spread half the mas­car­pone mix­ture even­ly over the bis­cuits. Dip the re­main­ing bis­cuits in­to the cof­fee mix­ture and then arrange in a sin­gle lay­er over the mas­car­pone lay­er. Fin­ish with a lay­er of the re­main­ing mas­car­pone mix­ture. Cov­er with plas­tic wrap and re­frig­er­ate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

5. Sprin­kle with the grat­ed choco­late just be­fore serv­ing.