Tiramisù — The Treviso Rescue
Proof that some dishes need no improvement, only time and a steady hand.
Le Beccherie, 1972. A plate of leftover cream, a tray of stale biscuits, espresso dregs, and the kind of thinking that only happens when you're not trying. This isn't invention — it's rescue. Autumn in Treviso means Marsala wine hits its stride, eggs are at their brightest, and somewhere a baker has just turned out savoiardi that'll drink coffee like they were born to it.
How to Cook It
- 01
Cream the yolks.
Separate your eggs with the care of someone defusing a bomb — one broken yolk ruins everything. Put the yolks in a bowl with 100g of the sugar and whisk hard over a gentle heat (or room temperature, if you're careful) until the mixture is pale, thick, and ribbonlike. It should fall from the whisk in a thick, slow curl. This takes 4–5 minutes of proper work. Patience rewrites this dish.
~8 min - 02
Fold in the mascarpone.
Let the yolk mixture cool to room temperature. Take your mascarpone straight from the cold — it'll ease in better. Fold it through the yolks with a spatula, slow and deliberate. Don't stir. Fold. The cream should be pale, thick, and absolutely smooth. One streak of unmixed mascarpone is one streak too many.
~3 min - 03
Whip the whites.
In a clean, dry bowl, whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks hold. They should gleam, feel firm to the touch, and refuse to budge. This is where most people give up too early. Don't. Keep going until they're so stiff they look almost dry.
~5 min - 04
Fold whites into cream.
Gently fold a third of the whites into the mascarpone mixture to loosen it. Then fold the rest through in two goes, using a spatula and a light hand. Overmix and you'll deflate all that air you just worked for. The cream should be pale, billowed, and fragile.
~3 min - 05
Dunk and layer.
Mix the espresso with the Marsala in a shallow bowl. Dunk each savoiardi biscuit — hard and fast, one second per side — so it's wet but not sodden. A layer of dunked biscuits on the bottom of a 9x13-inch dish, then a layer of cream, then repeat. Finish with cream on top. You'll use most of the cream, but leave some biscuit for the final layer.
~5 min - 06
Chill and wait.
Cover the dish with clingfilm and put it in the fridge for at least 12 hours. Better is 24. During this time, the flavours marry, the biscuits soften into the cream, and the whole thing becomes what it was always meant to be. Do not rush this. Patience is the secret ingredient.
~720 min - 07
Dust and serve.
Take the tiramisù from the fridge 10 minutes before serving so it's not ice-cold. Sift the cocoa powder over the top in an even, generous layer. Slice with a warm, dry knife. Serve in wide shallow bowls or plates, so every spoonful carries cream, biscuit, and cocoa.
~2 min
“Forget fuss. Slice straight into the dish or into a wide bowl — the layers are the point. One slab per plate, no architect work needed. The cocoa should sit on top, a dusting of dark against pale cream. A spoon is all you need. Maybe a small glass of something cold to cut the sweetness. That's it.”
First spoonful: the cocoa hits bitter and sharp, then melts into sweetness — yolk, sugar, mascarpone. The biscuit has drunk itself into almost nothing, soft as sponge. Coffee lingers underneath, and Marsala makes a warm suggestion at the end. It's custard and cake in one bite, and it shouldn't work, but it does.
Replace the eggs and mascarpone with 500g of cashew cream (200g raw cashews blended smooth with 300ml plant milk and 2 tbsp agave syrup) whisked with 2 tbsp aquafaba (chickpea water) and 50g caster sugar, folded to airy peaks. The rest — biscuits, espresso, Marsala, cocoa — stays exactly the same. You lose the custard richness but gain something lighter; the cocoa and coffee do the heavy lifting. Use vegan savoiardi if you can source them, or soak regular ones 30 seconds longer to compensate. No shame in this version. It works.
Lightly sparkling, faintly sweet, it echoes the Marsala in the dish and adds a whisper of fizz to cut the cream.
Pour it over the top at the table — bitter, hot, cuts through the sweetness like a blade and wakes up your palate.
- ·Cold mascarpone folds easier than room-temperature — grab it from the fridge 5 minutes before you need it.
- ·The espresso-Marsala mix should be warm when you dunk; cold coffee won't soak into the biscuits properly.
- ·Over-dunking a savoiardi and you'll end up with mush instead of custard. One Mississippi, flip, one Mississippi. Done.
- ·Make this a day ahead. Tiramisù improves overnight; the flavours settle and deepen like they've been thinking about it.
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