Tiramisu à la Bruna

I brought this recipe from an Italian town on the northern Adriatic coast almost 20 years ago, when the words tiramisu and mascarpone were mostly known only to real experts in Italian cuisine.

This town is called Duino, located about 12 km from Trieste, near the border with Slovenia. Therefore, on the town sign, its name is also written in Slovenian: Devin. It is interesting that Italy is the third country for me where I visited a place called Devin, because, in addition to the village Devin (now part of Bratislava) in Slovakia, I was also in Devin in Bulgaria!

In Duino (or Devin) in Italy, we had friends who worked at the United World College. They had a little son and his babysitter was Bruna – a typical cheerful and noisy Italian lady. When we visited our friends, Bruna made tiramisu for us and we immediately fell in love with this dessert! The next day, we hurried to the local supermarket and bought mascarpone and Italian ladyfingers so that we could make tiramisu also at home in Vienna. How great was my surprise when I also found mascarpone in Viennese supermarkets – on the shelves with cheese! If it wasn’t for Bruna, I would have passed them without knowing how to use mascarpone for a long time.

Bruna’s recipe for tiramisu is simple, and most importantly, it’s not a recipe from a noble restaurant but just a homemade recipe the way they used to make this dessert in her family. I haven’t seen Bruna since then but I often remember her because her “tirco” is one of the most popular dainties in our family. I even prepare it in a round glass bowl as she did. The only change in the recipe is that I use melted chocolate instead of bitter coffee to make the dessert suitable for children as well.

Tiramisu à la Bruna

We need:

500 g mascarpone

5 eggs

5 tablespoons powdered sugar

savoiardi ladyfingers (I need half a package for my 22 cm glass bowl)

200 ml of water

100 g of chocolate for cooking

Method:

Heat water in a small pot and melt the chocolate in it, let it cool down (or use strong coffee). Whisk egg whites to stiff snow. Mix the yolks with sugar with a blender, add mascarpone. Mix the snow carefully in. Place alternately chocolate-soaked ladyfingers and cream in a bowl – start with the ladyfingers and end with a layer of cream. My bowl will hold 3 layers of ladyfingers and 3 layers of cream. Sprinkle with cocoa. I also like to decorate with fresh fruit. Store in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours.