Simple Italy

Celebrating Your Inner Italian

Coffee Semifreddo

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Bold and bracing, a coffee semifreddo slices through summer humidity.

Bold and bracing, a coffee semifreddo slices through summer humidity.

If the Lemon Semifreddo in the previous post can be characterized as angelic, this Coffee Semifreddo is the devilish counterpart. It is the sweet weapon of choice when you want to go full throttle against the torpor of summer weather.

 

Coffee Semifreddo
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Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
Author:
Serves: 8
The USDA recommends that, due to possible danger from Salmonella contamination, pasteurized in-shell eggs should be used for any recipe calling for uncooked or undercooked eggs.
Ingredients
  • 3 large eggs, separated (see note above)
  • ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar, divided
  • ½ cup brewed espresso or very strong coffee
  • 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract or brandy
  • Pinch of salt
  • ¾ cup heavy or whipping cream
  • Cocoa powder, chocolate curls, or chocolate-covered coffee beans
Instructions
  1. Line a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap so excess hangs over the sides. Set aside.
  2. In a medium saucepan, combine the egg yolks and ¼ cup sugar. With a flat-bottom whisk, stir until well combined. Stir in the espresso or coffee. Set over medium-high heat and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan and set it in a larger container filled with ice water; whisk occasionally until cool about 15 minutes. Stir in the vanilla or brandy.
  3. Combine the egg whites and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until whites look foamy. Continue beating while gradually adding ¼ cup sugar, until stiff peaks form.
  4. In another mixing bowl, using the same beater, beat the cream with a mixer at high speed, adding the remaining ¼ cup sugar half way through, until doubled in volume.
  5. Fold the egg-white mixture into coffee mixture then gently fold in whipped cream. Pour and spread into the prepared pan. Bring the extra plastic wrap over the top to cover the semifreddo. Place in the freezer at least 12 hours or up to 3 days.
  6. To unmold, remove top plastic wrap. Set aside for about 10 minutes. Place the pan over a serving platter, and turn the semifreddo out of the pan. Slice with a sharp knife.
  7. Dust with cocoa powder or garnish with chocolate curls or chocolate-covered coffee beans.

 

Click here for information about egg cooking safety.

Click here for information about pasteurized in-shell eggs.

 

Semifreddo for Summer

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Lush lemon semifreddo is the next best thing to being in Amalfi.

Lush lemon semifreddo is the next best thing to being in Amalfi.

 

Semifreddo translates as “half frozen.”

But its literal moniker underplays the lush nature of this Italian spoon dessert.

I’d rather call it Fresco Com’una Nuvola–“Cool as a Cloud.”

Sort of a cross between a frozen soufflé and gelato, a semifreddo delivers the plush mouthfeel of frozen meringue with the luxurious richness of cream.

Why is semifreddo so dreamy? Because air is whipped into the egg whites and the cream prior to freezing. Gelato, on the other hand, is denser because air is whipped into the gelato base as it freezes. So, semifreddo results in a softer, more sensual sweet.

Semifreddo is so right for summer. It can be prepared hours or days in advance. Berries and peaches are its seasonal friends.

Italians like to play around with textural contrasts and frequently add layers of crumbled crisp cookies or chopped nuts between layers of semifreddo. Sauces are also a fun option. Caramel sauce with lemon or coffee. Chocolate  sauce with raspberry or strawberry. You get the idea.

Make a semifreddo soon and you’ll be on nuvola numero nove.

Click here for information about egg cooking safety.

Lemon Semifreddo
Print
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
Author:
Serves: 8
The USDA recommends that, due to possible danger from Salmonella contamination, pasteurized in-shell eggs should be used for any recipe calling for uncooked or undercooked eggs.
Ingredients
  • ½ tablespoon butter, at room temperature
  • ½ cup granulated sugar plus sugar for coating the dish
  • 1½ tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
  • 6 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 egg, beaten (see note above)
  • 2 cups heavy or whipping cream
  • ¼ cup confectioners' sugar
  • 1 pint raspberries
Instructions
  1. Coat the inside of a 6-cup soufflé dish or other casserole with butter. Coat with granulated sugar. Set aside.
  2. In a medium saucepan, whisk ½ cup granulated sugar with cornstarch until blended. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and egg. Whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, for about 5 minutes until mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and whisk briskly. Set aside to cool, whisking occasionally.
  3. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar. Whip until peaks hold their shape. Fold one-third of the cream into the lemon mixture. Fold the lemon mixture into the remaining cream. Spoon into the prepared dish. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Place in the freezer for 12 hours or up to 3 days.
  4. To serve, remove the semifreddo from the freezer and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Scoop onto dessert dishes. Serve with the raspberries.

Next time: Coffee Semifreddo

 

Italy . . . A Dream Come True

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Civitella

Castello Civitella Ranieri, near Gubbio, is now a foundation for the arts.

By Patricia DeBellis

Italy, for me, has always been a catalyst for my dreams. I was a freshman in high school in California when I met my first foreign-exchange student and from then on my dream was to be a foreign exchange student.

This dream came true when–as an alternate for an American Field Service foreign-exchange summer scholarship (my classmate, Fred, had been picked to go to France)–I was told that an Italian family wanted a student. This was unprecedented.

Our local AFS chapter had never sent two students abroad. But, with the backing of my wonderful teachers and friends who contributed to the “Send Patty to Italy Fund,” off I went to live my dream!

This was only the beginning.

As an adult, my dreams continued to materialize. I was teaching Italian, French, and Spanish languages at Muhlenberg College when one semester I invited my French Civilization students to my house for croissants and cafe au lait.

Language professor Patricia DeBellis (left) savored 15 summers at a fifteenth-century castle in Tuscany.

Language professor Patricia DeBellis (left) savored 15 summers at a fifteenth-century castle in Umbria.

One of the students, Jennifer Downey, noticed a hand-painted ceramic plate in my kitchen. She shrieked with excitement and asked, “Is that a Rampini?” I said I wasn’t sure–I’d chosen it for its medieval knights design.

I wondered how a French major knew of this ceramics maker in Umbria. She explained that a friend had invited her for several summers to visit and stay in a fifteenth century castle not far from the small town where the Rampini family produce their maiolica.

The spring semester was ending and when Jennifer came to my office for part of the final exam, she brought a postcard of the castle and asked if I would like her to ask her friend to invite me and my husband! I gasped in excitement and said: “Is the Pope Polish?”

Jennifer Ursula

Student Jennifer Downey (left) pictured with Castello patron Ursula Corning, made Patricia DeBellis’ Italian dream come true.

In 1982 he was and we were invited!
 Our hostess was Ursula Corning, a delightful, intelligent, multi-lingual British-American who loved people and cats. Jack and I arrived at the fifteenth century Castello Civitella in time to celebrate our eighteenth wedding anniversary!

The cook, who every day rolled out the pasta on a marble slab, produced a beautiful cake with two entwined hearts. After a Spumante toast, we headed to nearby Gubbio (where the Rampini plate originated) where we attended a candlelight concert in the cloister of the thirteenth century church.

Patrizia Cicitella Road Sign

For Patricia DeBellis, Civitella Ranieri was the road taken.

This was the wonderful beginning of a fifteen-year-long invitation to a magical, artistic and educational summer stay. Is it any wonder that I love Italy?

 

Where did your Italian dream come true, or, where would you like it to come true?

Palazzo Donati Italian Holiday Tours

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At Palazzo Donati, you'll experience the gracious architecture of a seventeenth-century palazzo with modern amenities.

At Palazzo Donati, you’ll experience the gracious architecture of a seventeenth-century palazzo with modern amenities.

By Walter Sanders

My friend Luisa Donati emailed the other day with delightful stories about a group of Texans whom she’d hosted at Palazzo Donati. I envy those Lone Star ladies.

Last autumn, I stayed at the seventeenth-century Palazzo Donati and felt instantly at home. Not because of any noble lineage but because the town of Mercatello sul Metauro, where the Palazzo anchors part of the main piazza, welcomes visitors while maintaining its own rich authenticity.  The town serves a thriving agricultural area in the off-the-beaten-tourist-track region of Le Marche east of Tuscany.  From Lina, the pasta queen who took down British TV chef Jamie Oliver, to the (not-so) amateur chefs who comprise the cooking club Academia del Padlot, good food and good times thrive in Mercatello sul Metauro.

Luisa works with small groups to create customized itineraries. No two groups have the exact same experience. Here’s a sampling of what she can create for you. Contact Lusia and tell her SimpleItaly sent you!

The Tuscan Bug

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By Walter Sanders

Sam Hilt and his wife, Pamela Mercer, left Sonoma County to live and work near Siena.

Sam Hilt and his wife, Pamela Mercer, moved from Sonoma County to live and work near Siena.

So what’s a nice Jewish boy from Newark doing in a hospital in Siena, Italy?

Two things: Sam Hilt is recovering from successful heart surgery. Second, he’s using the recuperation time to colorfully describe the effects of an even more life-altering condition—the Tuscan Bug.

Many susceptible people contract the Tuscan Bug when they visit the Renaissance region. Hilt caught a particularly virulent strain during an unplanned jaunt to Italy when he was an undergrad  at Brandeis University.

After returning to the U.S. and earning his degree, Hilt spent nine years in graduate studies gaining a masters in comparative literature, a masters in psychology, and a doctorate in Renaissance studies.

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