Torta caprese and a coffee-free tiramisu: Kate and Giancarlo Caldesi’s Italian pudding recipes | Italian food and drink

Surrounded by lemon groves, almond and walnut trees, and with the Arab influence of the middle ages, the Amalfi coastline features some of the most effective cakes and tarts in Italy – and that is not even counting the ice-product and granita offered on each individual street corner. Today’s dense, indulgent chocolate tart, for instance, which hails from Capri, is packed with small nuggets of almonds, even though the lighter consider on the typical tiramisu characteristics a strawberry sauce that is a beautifully flexible factor to have in the fridge: it will insert a burst of flavour to a bowl of thick yoghurt with sliced banana or to vanilla ice-cream, and also appears to be like wonderful swirled into a glass of prosecco.

Torta caprese (chocolate and almond cake pictured prime)

Total peeled almonds preserve a ton of time and effort, but if you can locate them only with skins on, blanch them to start with in boiling h2o for a handful of minutes, then rub involving two tea towels, and the skins will arrive off rather very easily.

Prep 10 min
Cook dinner 1 hr + cooling
Can make 1 x 22cm round cake, to serve 6-8

200g space-temperature salted butter, diced, additionally further for greasing
200g skinned entire almonds
200g dim chocolate (least 70% cocoa solids), broken into squares
4 eggs, divided
150g caster sugar
Icing sugar, for dusting

Grease a 22cm free-bottomed spherical cake tin with butter, and heat the oven to 180C (160C admirer)/350F/gasoline 4). Scatter the almonds on an oven tray, bake for 10 minutes, until eventually lightly browned, then finely chop (or whizz in a food items processor) to the consistency of demerara sugar.

Whilst the almonds are roasting, soften the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl established around, but not touching, a pan of hardly simmering h2o (or in a microwave, in which circumstance just take care not to melt away the chocolate), then depart to great a little.

In a different bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until eventually mild and fluffy. In a third bowl, whisk the egg whites to tender peaks.

Idea the melted chocolate and butter into the egg yolk mix, combine comprehensively, then stir in the floor almonds. Fold in the egg whites right up until well combined, then pour all the things into the greased tin.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, till the tart forms a crust on the exterior (don’t assume a skewer to come out clean up, mainly because the centre of this cake will stay moist). Leave to neat in the tin ahead of unmoulding.

To beautify the cake, lay a patterned doily on leading, sift over a high-quality layer of icing sugar, then cautiously raise off the doily. Provide at place temperature – we like to eat this with orange ice-product.

Tiramisù fragole e limone (quick strawberry and lemon tiramisu)

This good fast dessert is a single we very first tried out in Positano at a pretty restaurant referred to as Next 2. Served in individual eyeglasses, it is very amazing to seem at.

Prep 10 min
Cook dinner 50 min
Serves 6

For the strawberry sauce
500g strawberries (or raspberries, or a mix of the two)
25-50g caster sugar, to taste and depending on the sweetness of the fruit

For the tiramisu
500g strawberries, hulled
300ml whipping product
250g mascarpone
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
75g caster sugar
2 tbsp maraschino liqueur, or white wine or elderflower cordial
Strawberry sauce (see over and system), to style – you will require involving fifty percent and all of it preserve any surplus in the fridge for up to a 7 days
12 sponge fingers
Icing sugar, for dusting

Initially make the sauce. Hull the strawberries, and reduce any big types in 50 %. Set the fruit in a medium saucepan and include the sugar to style. Deliver up to a gentle boil and cook dinner for 15-20 minutes, right up until the strawberries give easily when squished versus the sides of the pan. Pressure into a jug or container, leave to great, then address and store in the fridge.

Now for the tiramisu. Set apart 6 medium strawberries and lower the relaxation into slices. In a bowl, whip the cream, then whisk in the mascarpone. Gently and briefly fold in the lemon zest and sugar, followed by the lemon juice.

In a flat dish, combine the liqueur with a tablespoon and a half of the strawberry sauce, then dip the sponge fingers into the sauce mix until eventually they are just delicate but not soggy.

Lay a several sliced strawberries in the base of six martini eyeglasses or tumblers, so the cut sides deal with outwards, then prime in turn with 50 % the cream, the remaining sauce and the soaked sponge fingers. End with the remaining cream.

Minimize the reserved strawberries into fans and use to enhance each glass, then dust evenly with icing sugar and provide.

• Recipes extracted from The Amalfi Coastline, by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi, posted by Hardie Grant at £16.99. To get a copy for £14.78, go to guardianbookshop.com