Quarantine Recipes: Lidia Bastianich’s 10-Minute Tiramisu

One thing that hasn’t changed during the COVID-19 pandemic is the need to eat. Staying home has encouraged some to perfect their culinary skills while others have cracked open cookbooks for the first time.

To provide you with some kitchen inspiration, Modern Farmer is asking top chefs what they’ve been cooking while staying isolated. This week we heard from chef Lidia Bastianich, who shared a recipe for her Express Tiramisu. The critically acclaimed chef, restaurateur and cookbook author has been whipping this sweet dish up in quarantine in just 10 minutes. 

Chef Lidia Bastianich. Photo by Jen May.

Tiramisu is a common dessert on the menus of Italian restaurants and in Italian homes. The traditional tiramisu uses ladyfingers and espresso, although I have served other favorite flavors as well such as limoncello tiramisu and berry tiramisu. Now that I am home, I often try and come up with some quick versions of favorite Italian recipes. During these times, we all need a little, quick sweet every once in a while. This 10- minute tiramisu is one of those. The ladyfingers have been replaced by Italian wafers, and the creamy layer is simply made of mascarpone, powdered sugar, and heavy cream.

Express Tiramisu

SERVES 6 

Ingredients:
1 pound mascarpone
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup strong espresso, cold
Approximately 10 Italian coffee wafer cookies, split in half
6 ounces dark chocolate bar (for shaving on top) 

Directions:
In a medium size bowl, mix and whip the mascarpone with the sugar, then add the espresso and mix well. Whip the heavy cream with 2 teaspoons of sugar and fold in the coffee mascarpone cream. 

In six individual cups, distribute evenly the pieces of Italian wafer at the base. Add one layer of the mascarpone mixture, layer with more of the wafers. Finish with more mascarpone and top with grated dark chocolate and any left-over wafers.