I was not sure how to translate coppa in English other than use the word cup…I am pretty sure there is a more accurate word for it…but nothing better came to my mind. I realized today that my English is getting worse while we were at a Chinese restaurant with my neighbors. They invited us to this new dim sum place that opened recently down the street, and while I was trying to tell a story, I had a difficult time finding words.

The problem is that I rarely speak English now, I mostly speak French or Italian (I don’t really see my clients) and my English is getting worse. How awful!!

Anyway, this lovely dessert has been inspired by tiramisù…but looks like a triffle. So here we go with Triffasù. The mascarpone cream is the same than in tiramisù, the difference comes from the cookies used. Instead of using ladyfingers I use used some Italian cookies called  “cruschelle“, made with wholewheat flour. You can use regular shortbread too, anything that can be easily crumbled, but these “Frollini Integrali” are available in the US, Balocco brand is widely available here, and they are truly delicious, light and not greasy.

The cookies are roughly crushed and are not supposed to be soaked, they remain somehow crunchy.

The strawberries are mixed with some of the raspberry coulis and the mixture of the mascarpone cream and juicy berries is absolutely divine.

Of course, you can use just raspberries or only strawberries but I thought the combination of both had a unique character to this light dessert.

This dessert is extremely fast to prepare, definitely less than 30 minutes and does not need to be refrigerated for one day like traditional tiramisù, so when you have guests and no inspiration and no time for a dessert, this is will make the trick.

Ingredients for 5-6 cups

For strawberries

• 1 lb strawberries, cut in small pieces
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 12 cookies, preferably butter cookies

For the coulis

• 3/4 lb raspberries
• 2 tbs sugar (or to taste)

For the mascarpone cream

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 lb mascarpone (preferably imported from Italy)
• 2 tbs powder sugar

Preparation

Mix strawberries with sugar and set aside. Blend raspberries with sugar and pass through a sieve, to remove the seeds. Add 3 tbs of the coulis to the strawberries.

For the mascarpone cream, separate whites from yolks. Beat whites to a stiff consistency. Mix yolks with sugar until the mixture whitens. Add mascarpone to the yolk/sugar mixture and mix thoroughly until the cream is smooth and homogenous. Add whites to the mascarpone mixture.

Using a deep cup, add two tbs strawberry mixture, add some coulis. Add crumbled cookies, then add mascarpone cream. Add more strawberries on top and coulis. Refrigerate for one hour.

I wanted to make something quick and fresh before my trip to LA leaving tomorrow, and use that big case of strawberries I bought. After strawberry tarts, coulis, cake, crumble, the only thing I haven’t tried with strawberries is soup and salad. So here is the soup…

There is a new tendance about using fruits to make cold soups which is something I really love. For many years, I was stuck with the idea that fruits are sweet, therefore need to be eaten as a dessert or in sweet preparations. With years going by, I opened my mind to using fruits in savory preparations and not necessarily eating them as desserts. After making watermelon gaspacho, and cantaloupe-port soup, I wanted to try making a cold soup with strawberries. Et voilà, c’est prêt! Spring is coming and hopefully summer will take away the allergens and pollen.

Who doesn’t like strawberries? I think it’s the most popular fruit among kids and adults, everything about a strawberry is sexy, its heart shape, its color, sweetness, and all the wonderful desserts, with which you can make. I don’t know what I like most about this soup, its color, its sweetness, it’s texture?

I have to be honest and admit that I still haven’t found flavorful and ripe strawberries lately, they might look good, but they’re not, you need ripe and sweet ones for this gaspacho, so you might want to wait for summer if you can resist and wait that long.

Anyway, I think fruits are the best thing on earth, try this gaspacho and you’ll agree with me!

Ingredients for 4

• 1 lb strawberries, stem removed and cut in halves
• 3 well ripe tomatoes, seedless, peeled and cubed
• 1 tbs red onion, chopped
• 2 slices white bread or ideally brioche
• 2 tbs good quality balsamic vinegar, or strawberry vinegar
• 2 pinches piment d’espelette
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup water
• mint leaves

Preparation

In a mixing container, soak brioche with vinegar for about 30 minutes. Then combine all other ingredients except mint and water. Refrigerate for about 2 hours. Using a hand blender, mix soaked brioche with the rest of the ingredients, until obtained a purée type of texture. Add water and pass through a sieve. Decorate with mint en chiffonade and serve chilled.

Sometimes I like to feature recipes that did not travel too far, like this one. I went for dinner at a Basque restaurant in San Francisco a few nights ago and one of the dessert item was “gâteau de maïs à la compote de fraises“, cornmeal cake with strawberry compote. Then I realized that there is an Northern Italian cake that sounds just like this one, but I decided to skip dessert since I had a filling appetizer and entrée. I will have to go back and check out the Basque version now!

Everyone knows savory polenta, but there is another sweet version that a few people know, la polenta dolce. Well, if polenta dolce (sweet polenta) is a less famous way of preparing polenta, it is certainly not less delicious. In Lombardia (Milan, Brescia and Monza are the biggest cities) dessert based polenta are not that rare, and this recipe is a typical Lombard dessert and a good member of gastronomia Lombarda. It makes sense, since those regions produce a lot of polenta, when you drive through this area, you see so many corn fields, it’s so obvious that the production and consumption of polenta is high in these areas.

I made a few changes to the proportions but the ingredients are what they’re supposed to be. A good friend of mine from Milan used to eat soft polenta cooked in milk with raisins and sugar and my mom would look at this with a suspicious eye, thinking those people from the North eat funny things. Many Northern regions such as Friuli, Venezia, Piemonte do have their own versions of Polenta dolce and some other polenta-based desserts, but I somehow like this version with almond powder (or flour) and marsala, but if you like cherries, you can also use maraschino which is a Venetian liquor made with cherries (and also available in the US).

You can serve it with any accompaniment you like, I love strawerries and rhubarb compote so much that I can eat it with anything, yogurt, ice cream, cakes, etc…and with this polenta cake it works perfectly. These polenta cakes are delicious, and can be eaten for breakfast as well, they’re not very sweet nor greasy and very hearty.

Ingredients for 6 individual cakes

• 2.11 oz (or 60 g) butter
• 3 eggs
• 2.46 oz (or 70 g) sugar
• 2. 46 oz (or 70 g) white flour
• 3.14 oz (or 90 g) yellow polenta
• 1.76 oz (or 50 g) almond flour (or almond meal)
• 3 tbs marsala or maraschino
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder
• 1 tsp baking powder

Strawberry-rhubarb compote – see recipe here

Preparation

Melt butter and in a mixing container combine with sugar. Mix well with an egg beater. Add eggs and mix well for about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the flours carefully, and vanilla, marsala (or maraschino) and baking soda.

Divide in 6 individual molds or a large one. Cook for about 30 minutes in a 370F pre-heated oven.

Let it cool and serve with a berry or fruit compote.

My Friday afternoon was spent driving back and forth from San Francisco to the East Bay. I completely forgot that on Friday afternoons when it rains the freeways are completely insane and the traffic is worse than Paris périphérique aux heures de pointe (during rush hours). I had to drop off some food for some clients on the other side of the bridge and I thought I was never going to make it. A trip that usually takes 30 minutes, took me 2 hours. Besides I am a terrible driver, never had an accident, just a few bumper scratches but I always feel something might happen because I have no concept of space. I have no idea if the car is two meters or three meters behind me.

So when I got home, I made myself a small sweet treat, to calm my adrenaline rush from all the freeway movement.

I don’t know if “riz au lait” is something very popular in the US, I have never seen it served anywhere, maybe it’s considered an “unsophisticated” or rudimentary dessert, I don’t know. In France, riz au lait is something very common, that every household knows how to make. Now I like riz-au-lait with some fruit compote or caramel, or something underneath the rice.

The tricky part is to keep the rice in a creamy vanilla sauce. Rice tends to absorb the liquid, then you might end up with some dry rice which is not very good. You need a lot of milk (and preferably whole milk) and let to rice simmer at very slow heat for about one hour. I used reduced fat milk and tasted great too. There are as many versions of riz au lait as there are cooks in France, so this one is just my version. You can flavor it with cinnamon if you like it. I am a vanilla fan so I don’t want to spoil the natural vanilla flavor with cinnamon.

Ingredients for 4-6

• 5.30 oz (or 150 g) round rice, I used arborio
• 4.2 cups (or 1 liter) whole milk or reduced fat milk
• 4 tbs heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean split
• raw sugar to your tastes
• 2 tbs chopped walnuts
• 1 lb strawberries
• 1 or 2 tbs light brown sugar

Preparation

Rinse the rice under running water. Bring a water to a boil and cook rice for about 6-7 minutes. Drain. Bring milk and cream to a boil with vanilla bean split. Add rice and let it simmer at very low temperature for about one hour making sure it does not stick. After 30 minutes, add sugar and stir.  Add chopped walnuts.

Wash and cut strawberries, cook at medium temperature with light brown sugar until strawberries turn into a sauce.

You can eat the rice lukewarm or cold.

Place some strawberries at the bottom of a cup then add rice on top. Decorate with fresh strawberries and walnut bits.

At this time of the year, I am either in Italy or France with my family and right now I tend to get nostalgic…it’s cold, foggy and windy in San Francisco, and I wish I were home. When I get homesick, I start cooking things I make when I am over there. I love to use mascarpone in all kinds of desserts, it’s a wonderful cream, not sure I would call it cheese though, anyway it does not matter, what matters is all the wonderful recipes you can make with it.

It’s certainly not to be snobby but if you get mascarpone, please try to get the imported one, not domestic. The domestic mascarpone is thicker, more yellow and more rubbery, so your mousse will not be as fluffy. I think when it has to do with tiramisù, I tend to be very “purist” in the sense that I hate to see tiramisù with whipped cream, I don’t know why it’s just one ingredient that I don’t want to see in tiramisù, therefore will not call this tiramisù, even if it looks like one. Yes, sometimes as far as food is concerned, I can be strange.

I had some extra mousse so I made an additional little verrine…banana, pear and vanilla. You can use any other fruit, but I just had those two left and the good thing is that they are two fruits that mix really well together. You can add some chocolate coulis after the layer of fruits.

Ingredients for 3-4

• 1.5 lb strawberries
• 1/2 lb raspberries
• 1 pack lady fingers
• 1/2 lb (or 250 g) imported mascarpone
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3 tbs powdered sugar
• 2 tbs granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• juice of 1 orange
• 2 tbs sweet wine  (like Marsala, Pinot des Charentes, etc…)

Preparation

Wash and cut strawberries, add granulated sugar and cook at medium heat for about 15 minutes until the strawberries are cooked but not over mushy and that they have produced a deep red juice. Drain and keep the juice aside. Let cool.

Add orange juice, marsala, and vanilla extract to strawberry juice, mix well.

Separate yolks from whites. Beat yolks with powdered sugar until the mixture whitens and double its volume. Add mascarpone and mix thoroughly. Beat egg whites to a thick consistency, and until they start peaking. Fold carefully to the mascarpone mixture. Whip the cream and add to the egg/mascarpone mixture.

Deep lady fingers in the strawberry juice. Deep long enough so that they absorb enough juice. Place at the bottom of a deep dish or a glass. Add a layer of cooked strawberries, then add fresh raspberries. Proceed with another layer of mascarpone cream, and start again with another layer of lady fingers, straberries, raspberries and cream. Decorate with fresh raspberries, and/or powdered chocolate or any other pretty item.

Place in the refrigerator for 2 hours and serve.