Tiramisù, the Italian dessert par excellence

It was born in Treviso (a lovely town near Venice) in 1970, a sort of zabaglione named “sbatudin”, a poor and energetic dessert made from egg yolk whipped with sugar, mainly prepared for children and elderly people. An old inn of the period, the modern-day Le Beccherie restaurant, managed by Ado Campeol, invented and added this dessert to its menu for the first time in history. Ado’s wife Alba and chef Roberto Linguanotto, while preparing a vanilla ice cream, had a “cooking accident” and dropped mascarpone cheese in the bowl containing eggs and sugar; tasting the “dirty” spoon of the new mixture, the chef was delighted and, at that point, they both decided to try that mascarpone cream on some ladyfingers soaked in bitter coffee.
Ingredients are mascarpone, eggs, sugar, ladyfingers, coffee and cocoa powder.
The key point is the cream. Which must remain soft, without being completely absorbed by the ladyfingers. In the classic recipe, neither the liqueurs nor the chocolate appears inside the layers. If you prefer to add liqueur, Marsala is the most suitable. There are several alternative versions, in addition to liqueur and chocolate, those with sponge cake, with pavesini (crispy and thin Italian biscuits), strawberries, ice cream, limoncello, yogurt … revisited versions seasoned with a lot of imagination.
A normal serving, equal to about 175 g, contains 500 calories, 58% fat, 35% carbohydrates, 7% protein.

Some curiosities about this Italian dessert.
It has a Guinness of records that is almost impossible to reach. In the town of Gemona del Friuli, very likely inhabited by many greedy citizens, they managed to make the largest tiramisù in the world: 3015 kg of goodness!
It did traveled into space. The Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano in 2013 requested a special menu for his stay in orbit with the Russian spacecraft Sojuz TMA¬09M of the European Space Agency. The Turin chef Davide Scabin spoiled him and prepared a recipe suitable for weightlessness: a dehydrated tiramisù packed for him.
It is celebrated in March, the 21st.
A legend says that this dessert was invented by a clever “maitresse” of a house of pleasure in the center of Treviso as an aphrodisiac dessert to offer to customers at the end of the evening in order to reinvigorate them: a natural Viagra from the 19th century.

Here the recipe taken from the book “La cucina Trevigiana” by Giuseppe Maffioli.

Ingredients for about 6-8 servings:
Savoiardi Ladyfingers (I suggest 300 g,10,5 oz).
300 g (10,5 oz) of mascarpone cheese.
3 yolks
sugar, one and half spoon per yolks
espresso coffee
unsweetened cocoa powder

First of all, make the coffee and let it cool down.
Beat the egg yolks (I would like to suggest adding pasteurized eggs) with the sugar. Combine the mascarpone and obtain a soft cream.
Soak the ladyfingers with the coffee and arrange them in layer.
Cover the layer of ladyfingers with mascarpone cream and repeat the operation in layers and ending with a layer of cream.
Sprinkle the top with bitter cocoa and place in the refrigerator for few hours before serving cold.

For any further information contact me at
stefaniamontalbano@carlozucchetti.it