Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [282]
Do, however, have the spirits mixture ready and the pound cake cut before you make the custard cream so you can use the latter the moment it’s done.
For 6 servings
The custard cream made with this recipe
A 10-ounce pound cake, sliced ¼ inch thick
A pastry brush
1 tablespoon rum mixed with 2 tablespoons Cognac, 2 tablespoons Drambuie, and 4 tablespoons Cherry Heering
2 ounces semisweet chocolate squares, chopped up
A double boiler
OPTIONAL TOPPING: 1 ounce chopped toasted almonds
1. Choose a deep dish or a bowl from which you will be serving the zuppa. Smear the bottom of the dish with 4 to 5 tablespoons of hot custard cream.
2. Line the bottom of the dish with a layer of pound cake slices set edge to edge. Dip a pastry brush into the liqueur mixture and saturate the cake with it. Top with one-third the remaining custard cream. Cover with another layer of sliced cake, and brush it with half the remaining liqueur mixture.
3. Bring water to a simmer in the lower part of a double boiler. In the top of the double boiler put the 2 ounces of chopped chocolate. When the chocolate has melted, divide the remaining custard cream into two parts, mix the melted chocolate with one part, and spread it over the layer of pound cake in the dish.
4. Add another layer of cake slices to the zuppa, soak it with the remaining liqueurs, and cover with the last of the custard cream. Top with the optional toasted almonds.
5. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 to 3 hours, and up to a day in advance. Serve chilled.
Sandro Fioriti’s Variation
Sandro’s in New York is where I go when, after I’ve been on the road a while, I am overcome by desire for the unaffected flavors of an Italian home kitchen. Before covering the zuppa with the last of the custard cream, spread 3 tablespoons of sour cherry preserves—imported Italian amarene preserve, if you can find it, or English morello, or other sour cherry—over the uppermost layer of pound cake, then cover with the custard cream. Omit the chopped almonds.
Zabaglione
THE WARM, wine-scented froth we call zabaglione may be the only dish made of whipped egg yolks. I don’t know of another. Because egg yolks harden quickly over strong heat, it is easier to make zabaglione off direct heat in a double boiler, as in the instructions that follow. If, however, you know how to control this kind of cooking, you can do it directly over the flame, possibly using the traditional, round-bottomed, unlined copper zabaglione pot.
For 6 servings
4 egg yolks
¼ cup granulated sugar
A double boiler
½ cup dry Marsala wine
Note The egg yolk mixture increases considerably in volume as you beat it and cook it. If your double boiler is not a large one, you’d be better off improvising one by putting one good-size pot into a larger one that contains simmering water. There are trivets made especially to support the inner pot (a useful gadget to own), but you can use any small metal trivet for the purpose.
1. Put the egg yolks and sugar in the top of the double boiler, or in the inner pot as described above, and whip the yolks with a whisk, or electric mixer, until they are pale yellow and creamy.
2. In the bottom of the double boiler, or in the larger pot, bring water to the brink of a simmer.
3. Fit the two double-boiler pans together, or place the smaller pot with the yolks inside the one with the water. Add the Marsala, beating constantly. The mixture will begin to foam, then swell into a soft, frothy mass. The zabaglione is ready in 15 minutes or less, when it has formed soft mounds.
Zabaglione is usually served warm, either spooned into glass cups on its own, or over sliced ripe fruit, such as peaches or mango, or