Story and photos by Barbara Angelakis.
Recipe translation by Gabriella Venezia, trevisoguide@hotmail.com
The Original Tiramis
On a trip to Treviso Italy, I was introduced to the city’s proud claim to fame as the place where Tiramis was first created. In the late 1800s the owner and head cook at a small restaurant and sweet shop called Le Beccherie in Piazza Ancilotto, just behind the Piazza de Signori in the center of Treviso, needed a “pick me up” (pick me up is the actual translation of the word tiramis). She created the recipe and, to use 2021 terminology, it went viral, becoming a favorite sweet world-wide. The recipe comes from the “sbatudin” a mix of egg yolk beaten together with sugar, and is commonly used by Treviso farmers as a restorative for newly-weds.
The home of Tiramis has undergone a complete revamping, but it is still in the same location where it has been since 1935, and it is no longer owned by the Campeol family, but their famous dessert lives on, and in fact an updated version has been created.
The new version is called “Scomposto” and while it was beautiful to behold and delicious to taste, the original still won our hearts.
The recipe for 6 persons follows.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
500g fresh mascarpone cheese
4 eggs
170g sugar
4 cups of espresso coffee or brewed/filtered coffee
24 lady fingers. In Italian, ladyfingers are called “Savoiardi” and are hard with sugar crystals on top
3 tsp. powdered bitter cocoa
salt to taste
175 ml dark Rum or to taste
Method:
Separate the eggs, whites in one bowl, and yolks in second bowl
Whip egg whites frothy
Whisk the yokes with 150g of sugar until they are a soft straw-yellow color
Add the mascarpone cheese to yolks and sugar and stir
Add the rum and the whipped egg whites and gently mix until absorbed
Prepare the coffee. Add balance of sugar and 4 tsp. of water and pour in a flat bottom bowl
Quickly dip the ladyfingers one at a time in the coffee and lay in the bottom of a rectangular pan packed close together.
Cover the first layer of biscuits with the mascarpone cream and continue the process until all lady fingers are in the pan covered with mascarpone cream. Final layer must be the mascarpone cream.
Put the pan of tiramis in the refrigerator, for at least 3 hours, and just before serving, sprinkle with powdered unsweetened cocoa. Serve with a side glass of espresso (to be authentic, the espresso must be served in a small heavy glass, not in a cup).
© January 2021 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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