Lemon Tiramisù

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 400 gr. Italian Savoiardi (sponge lady finger biscuits)
  • 500 gr. mascarpone cheese
  • 20 tablespoons of Limmi lemon juice
  • 200 gr. sugar

Preparation

In a bowl, whip mascarpone cheese, sugar and 1 tablespoon of Limmi lemon juice and smooth. Pour a bit of cream over a serving dish.
Dip each biscuit, on each side, into some lemon juice and lay on the dish. Spread some mascarpone cream over the biscuits and repeat the process, using up the Savoiardi and finishing with a cream layer.
Smooth the surface. Refrigerate for almost three hour.

Did you know that… ?

Tiramisù cake is name after its energetic and mending properties (from Italian ‘tirare su’, ‘riprendersi’ > ‘to pick s.o. up’ , ‘to restore’).
According to a famous legend the conventional recipe, coffee and cocoa-powder based , was invented in Siena (Italy) to celebrate the visit of Cosimo III de’ Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany, in XVII century. Siena cookers in his honor arrange a new concoction, dubbed ‘Zuppa del Duca’ (the ‘duke’s soup’). The erstwhile duke brought the dessert recipe back with him to Florence.

In Veneto (Italy) the former recipe was enhanced with mascarpone cheese, typical cheese of northern Italy. Actually, many people say the name ‘ tiramisù’ was born in Venice: it used to be eaten by ladies who worked in brothels as stimulating and aphrodisiac dessert – thanks to its cocoa and coffee mixture.

In XIX century the modern version of the recipe, with Savoiardi (sponge lady fingers biscuits or Savoy biscuits) spread all over the world.
In Emilia Romagna (Italy) they made-up a ‘light’ recipe without biscuits, ‘Crema/Zuppa della Duchessa‘ (Duchess cream/soup), with cream and slivers of chocolate.