Zabaglione first: life is uncertain

It’s still full-on strawberry season, so it makes sense to have them for dessert while they are still all that they should be. There are so many delicious ways to serve them, simple, elaborate, country style, sophisticated metropolitan style. I pulled out an old Italian friend yesterday. Oddly, although I have a special pan for making zabaglione in frightening quantities, and I brought it nack to Italy with me ten years ago, and although I made it often enough in the United States, I hadn’t made it even once in this Italian kitchen. That seems strange.

Zabaglione (pronounced dzah-bahl-lyoh-nay) is a standard recipe you don’t need to mess with. It has three ingredients and stretches and shrinks as easily an anything I have ever seen. The recipe is expressed in a ratio and that ratio works every time exactly the same. It’s cooked over simmering water in a double boiler/bain marie/bagno maria. You can make it well ahead and cool then chill it, or you can like I did make it last moment and chill it quickly over ice water.

This is what I made for two servings. That is three egg yolks, three level tablespoons of sugar, and six level tablespoons of Marsala wine. It happens that Marsala is quite cheap here, but I find it very useful in the kitchen and I would keep it around even if it cost twice as much, which it may where you live. It is a fortified wine, so it will literally last generations if you don’t get around to using it up, but if you use it the way you might ordinarily use sherry, it will soon disappear.

So that’s the ratio: 1 egg yolk, 1 level tablespoon of sugar and 2 level tablespoons of Marsala. Once memorized, you will be able to pull up in Mongolia and make Zabaglione for 2 or 200. It’s very useful with stale cake, all fruits pretty much– well, maybe not watermelon– brownies, fruit tarts, use your imagination.

Just put all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl, whisk them together, then put the bowl over simmering water and whisk continually for 10 to 15 minutes until the sauce is heated all the way through and is slightly thickened. It will never be firm like a pudding, because it has only yolks in it, but then it’s served over, under or inside things. When mine was cooked, I threw out the simmering water and replaced it with a tray of ice cubes and water in the same pan. I whisked the Zabaglione over that until it was room temperature.

I had cleaned and sliced strawberries first thing in the morning and then left them to macerate a bit with some sugar at room temperature. The dish was well covered so as not to attract ants which always come with the berries.

When I was ready to serve, I took two old fashioned glasses of deeply cut crystal and spooned them one-third full of berries. I divided the Zabaglione between the two then added more berries for color. We ate them while sitting on the river bank watching Max fish. Remember Max? He’s back!