Crema Di Caffè AKA Coffee Mousse

Here's a recipe from Silvia Colloca's cookbook The Italian Home Cook.  She is a marvel; she's an opera singer, a writer (and not in her native tongue!), a cook and cooking show host, a mum of three, an actor and is married to one of Australia's better-known actors Richard Roxburgh.  And she's attractive and lovely,  You may have seen her as one of the vampire brides in that weirdly funny and fab movie Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman as the vampire killer.   

Anyway, in her latest cookbook, there are loads of interesting recipes with all the usual suspects: pastas, legumes, veg., meat, eggs and dairy, and sweets.  I've already made a couple of them, and thought I'd post a quick one here before the book goes back to the library.  And you have to hunt up that movie, folks.  Worth it to see Hugh in his leather coat, waving a crossbow around!  And of course Silvia and her hubby, who plays the vampire!

light and creamy with a delicate coffee flavour

Serves 4-5:

ingredients:

100 mL/3.5 oz freshly-brewed espresso coffee    see Notes

2 Tbs caster sugar  (Aussie Tbs are 20 mL btw)

300 mL/10 oz thickened cream (chilled)

50g./1.8 oz dark chocolate chips

35g./1.3 oz walnuts or your fave nut, chopped  (optional)

dark chocolate shavings, to serve

amaretti or biscotti, to serve

Method:

Make the coffee, and stir in the caster sugar; into the fridge it goes to chill

When the coffee is cold, pour into a mixing bowl with the cream, and beat for a couple of minutes till you have soft peaks

Add the choc chips and the nuts; fold in gently

Spoon into 4 or 5 cups/ramekins/whatever you have; top with the choc shavings (and biscotti crumbs if using)

Put into the fridge for an hour or two to firm up, then serve with the amaretti or biscotti    see Notes

Notes:

I made coffee in my Nespresso pod machine; one pod gave me exactly 100 mL of fresh coffee!  (Maybe add a drop or two of Frangelico to the coffee)

I used Lindt 70% dark chocolate

I think you could drop several extra biscotti into your food processor and blitz till you have some lovely crumbs, which you can strew over the top of your creams

stir the sugar into the espresso

whip that cream and coffee

tip in the chocolate pieces/chips

fold in the nuts

serve with biscotti or amaretti

c. Sherry M.

gotta love a man in a leather coat, carrying a crossbow