Strawberry and peaches with balsalmic zabaglione courtesy Mario Batali
Because I assisted my brother-in-law with making this dessert last night I feel entitled to share it in my blog. It was very simple to prepare, I cut the fruit and separated the eggs and he did the rest.
It was a marvellous revelation when first tasting the balsalmic zabaglione, almost as mind blowing as when I first tried balsalmic strawberries. This is one dessert that I will most definately be serving soon as I am already plagued by thoughts of its intoxicatingly caramel velvety luciousness contrasting with the cool sweet flesh of the ripe peaches.
I have cheated and photographed the recipe below, I was too tired to copy it out by hand this morning, we did see the New Year in minus the cheese course as we ended up having 5 courses starting with some Chorizo and Cheese Puffs with some pulped white peaches and Italian champagne - Bellinis I think. Then we had Gordon Ramsey's Caesar Salad with fresh Anchovies (quite expensive my SIL told me $70 a kilo, a small tub set them back $20 and they need to think of ways to use it today)
We then had some handmade tortellini, filled with chicken and veal in a turkey broth and lots of authentic parmesan. After a little rest ( all the sparkling and wine went to my head) I needed to cool down and prepare myself for the main course, which was escallopes of rolled veal filled with pecorino and sage in a tomato and olive ragu, with green beans and simple mash.
I decided not to fit in the mash in order preserve some room for the final course. We drank P's final Wynn's Michael 1999 - very big on the mulberry flavour I thought, and went quite well with the ragu for the veal.
With the zabaglione, my BIL decided to use double cream which he said whipped extremely quickly and extra thickly. It was the whipped double cream which I thought was responsible for the velvet texture of the zabaglione. Although he didn't allow it to chill for 30minutes it still had a thick custard texture, however I think I would prepare this dessert in advance if I were to do it. My BIL tends to do things from scratch on the night with the guests in attendance, I tend not to as I am always worried I will have had too much to drink and forget an integral step.
recipe
All 5 courses we had for New Years Eve:
