Now continuing on from Part 1 and Part 2 of my Europe trip, for Part 3 we continue in Italy. The first part of this post will be a real dessert recipe by the one-and-only Gino D’Acampo (who was also the voice of my previous cooking videos) but visually demonstrated by none other than Chef Crusoe!
This is a super-easy and utterly delicious dessert recipe, which Gino calls ‘Lemon & Lemoncello Mousse‘.
This is a fantastic dessert to make because it uses two of the iconic ingredients from this area – lemons and the lemoncello/lemoncino liqueur!
Try not to get too distracted by the view though.
Or me for that matter.
Ingredients (for 2 servings):
- Two eggs. Even though the yolk is the best part, we will only keep the snotty stuff.
- A lemon, picked fresh from your seaside terrace overlooking the Cinque Terre coast.
- Mascarpone cheese. Have someone hide it from you before it’s time to use it so you don’t taste-test it all away.
- The sweet white sand that Mum calls sugar.
- Amaretti biscuits. These are almond cookies that are so light and crunchy you’re sure to become addicted.
- Lemoncello liqueur.
Step 1: Let’s Get Crackin’
Crack the two eggs into your bowl without breaking the yolk.
Then with a spoon, carefully remove the golden yolks.
It should look like a big bowl of horse shnot if you do it right.
But can you believe Mum broke one of the yolks!? Amateur-hour over here. You’ll need to start over if you do otherwise the next step won’t work properly.
Luckily I anticipated Mums clumsiness and had bought extra eggs.
2. Whip it up!
We’re doing this the authentic, old-fashioned way – hand mixing.
It’s tiring though, so get someone strong and with a lot of stamina to do this. I could easily do it but unfortunately I don’t have the dexterity needed to hold the whisk.
That’s what I say – but the real reason is that again, I just like watching Mum and Dad huff and puff.
Heck, Dad is STILL complaining about how tired his arm is.
You need to keep doing this until it’s white and airy. You know it’s ready when you can hold the bowl upside down over your head and it doesn’t fall out.
But having already seen signs of Mum’s incompetence in dealing with eggs, I couldn’t help but be a little worried that I might be wearing egg whites as a new hat at any moment.
Luckily, the only hat I’ll be wearing today is my Chef’s hat.
3. Caress the Cheese
Now we need to very gently, fold in the Mascarpone cheese into the egg whites. Do so just a little bit at a time, and it’s best to even stir the Mascarpone cheese a bit first to loosen it up.
At the same time, add two heaping teaspoons of white sand.
Make sure it’s the white, sweet-tasting sand, because plain old sand from the beach DOES NOT taste good (I know).
4. Zest it up
Zest a lemon and add it to the mixture.
Make sure that if you don’t have seaside lemon plantation under your balcony like I do, that you buy an UNWAXED lemon…
5. Booze it up
Add a tablespoon or so of Lemoncello, which is generally available at your local liquor store.
If you have some leftover, don’t worry – it also makes for a great digestif later in the evening.
Make sure you mix everything together, and then pour it into two cocktail glasses. Now we’re ready for the final touch.
At this point, I’m licking my chops in hungry anticipation!
6. Sprinkle a Little Bit of Heaven
Take the Amaretti cookies, crunch them up, and sprinkle them over the glasses.
You could also replace the Amaretti biscuits with liver treats if you prefer.
Mmm…
And there you have it, Lemon & Lemoncello Mousse with Amaratti biscuits!
Normally I let Dad clean all the dishes, but that night I made sure everyone’s cocktail glass was sparkling clean!
Hope you enjoyed that quick recipe by Gino! Try it out for yourself if you can! And don’t worry, a beautiful setting on the Cinque Terre coast is not required for this recipe – but will greatly enhance the look of your Instagram photos.
Next up on the itinerary, we were moving base to spend a couple quick days in Northern Italy’s beautiful Lake Como…
Lake Como has been a getaway destination for aristocrats and celebrities for generations. Some modern-day celebrities who call this place a vacation home include: George Clooney, Richard Branson, Madonna, Versace, and now, Crusoe the Celebrity Dachshund!
So one of the first things we needed to do was rent a private boat and cruise the lake…
Obviously so that I can choose which villa Mum and Dad should buy for me.
The one behind me (seen below) was quite nice.
But it didn’t really seem to have a good place for my giant marble wiener statue that last I checked with Mum and Dad, should be in the works.
After all, I need to make sure it’s clearly visible to everyone on the lake.
It seems Richard Branson’s villa here would have a large enough front yard though…
And I’ve heard George Clooney’s place has a beautiful garden. I’m sure my wiener statue would make a wonderful centerpiece.
Here I am checking out his place. For a moment I wondered if I should give Georgey a call to see if he could give me a quick tour (since you know, it’s for sale and all), but I don’t know – for almost US $40 million, I think I could find something a bit better…
I decided to pass.
So anyway, not finding anything to my particular taste, we made our way back to shore – whilst holding a killer flex upon the bow.
Because hey, I got to show all those aristocats who’s boss.
After a long day out on the boat, we went to enjoy a delicious pizza and beer at a lovely local restaurant with a fantastic view out over the lake.
Now this is how you enjoy Italy! You don’t need a fancy villa to enjoy a fresh pizza and a killer view like this. At that point Mum tried to convince me that one does not need a giant marble wiener statue to prove anything either…
She’s funny…
The next morning we were to leave already, and it seemed too soon. We were staying at a condo/apartment-type place with a nice pool, and seeing there was no one else around, I decided to catch some early morning pool-side rays before the long car ride ahead.
-Also giving me some time to self-reflect on the amazing time I’ve had here it Italy. The food, the people, the history, and the scenery are all so amazing. I truly hope to come back one day!
In the meantime, we have a long car ride ahead to our next stop and it’s best I catch some sleep…
…Because as you’ll soon see, there’s a lot of hiking to do in Grindelwald, Switzerland!
Keep house-searchin’,
~ Crusoe
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