A Little "Pick-Me-Up" Experiment

I love Italian food. Of all food cultures, Italian is the one that I can relate to the most, the dishes are classical, passed down through generations, and adapted from region to region based on local ingredients and traditions. The recipes are simple, usually with a short list of ingredients, where taste is determined by the quality of the produce used, rather than excessive seasoning. My cooking style differs only in that the Italians can be very protective over the integrity and authenticity of their recipes, whereas I am much more flexible when it comes to switching ingredients either to experiment with a different taste, or (as happens more frequently) to adapt to the ingredients in my cupboard...

Last night I made a Tiramisu in true kick-at-the-pantry-door fashion, replacing about half of the ingredients in the process. For starters, my local store was out of mascarpone cheese, so I had to buy ricotta, then I had to substitute the Marsala sherry (well really, who has Marsala sherry in the house) for Amaretto. I had decided to adopt a Gordon Ramsey recipe, which calls for double cream rather than eggs, and is a much quicker method for making the dessert - in the end only the lady-fingers, coffee and sugar were from the original recipe. Here's the link if you are interested http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/gordon-ramsay/easy-tiramisu-recipe

The Italian translation of Tiramisu is "pick me up", which is a beautiful name for a dessert, although in my case I could apply the phrase to most foods! Here are my colourful little mood-lifters from this morning...

G'night all! Vx