Mamma Pia’s Tiramisu — so easy!

Ingredients:

• 500 grams Mascarpone Cheese
• 500 grams ladyfingers, Savoiardi or Pavesini (Pavesini is Mamma Pia’s preferred choice, but not available in Beijing)
• 5 eggs
• 6 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1½  cups espresso coffee sweetened with 1 tablespoon sugar
• cocoa powder

Equipment:

• hand mixer
• spatula
• 2 large mixing bowls
• shallow flat-bottomed bowl
• glass dish

Preliminary Steps:

1. Bring all ingredients to room temperature.
2. Make the espresso and poor it into shallow flat-bottomed bowl and allow to cool to room temperature.
   Chef Paolo Vitaletti advises, “If at this point you’ve decided to use coffee instead of espresso, take the coffee you’ve made and drink it. Then make espresso.” Bottom line, use espresso and DO NOT use instant coffee.

The Mascarpone Cream:

1. Break eggs and separate yolks from whites into two different mixing bowls.
2. Add 5 tablespoons of sugar to the yolks in one mixing bowl and 1 tablespoon to the egg whites in another mixing bowl.
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until creamy white. Add Mascarpone and mix until blended.
4. In the second mixing bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy. If you use pasteurized eggs, this may take a while.
5. Fold beaten egg whites into Mascarpone mixture. Mix only enough to blend. Over mixing will deflate the egg whites.

Espresso-dipped side down, spread the mascarpone cream, then dust with chocolate... repeat

Ladyfinger dipping technique:

Quickly dip a lady finger in the bowl of espresso. To get the right amount of espresso on the biscuits, lay the ladyfinger flat in the bottom of the bowl, sugared side up and then flip and place each ladyfinger flat in the bottom of the glass dish, sugared side down. The ladyfingers will absorb the espresso, quickly. If you soak the ladyfingers in the espresso, you will end up with soggy ladyfingers.

Build it:

1. Spread a layer of the Mascarpone cream on the bottom of the glass dish. Build a layer of dipped ladyfingers across the bottom of the pan. If some of the ladyfingers do not look dark from the espresso, spoon a few more drops of espresso over the ladyfingers. Any espresso left in the bottom of the pan will be absorbed by the ladyfingers. Too much espresso will turn the fingers into a soggy mess.
2. Spread a layer of Mascarpone cream across the layer of ladyfingers then dust cocoa powder over it. Layer another set of ladyfingers over the Mascarpone cream. Drip espresso over ladyfingers that don’t look dark enough. Add Mascarpone cream layer then dust with cocoa. Repeat this process until the layers reach the same height of the glass dish.
3. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. The tiramisu will taste great for several days if refrigerated.