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MERINGUE GELATO CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE

MERINGUE GELATO CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE

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Serves: 6-8

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  • Nigella Recipe
  • Vegetarian

I found this recipe for one of the world's easiest but most delicious desserts in a rather fabulous book, by chef and "culinary philosopher" Gioacchino Scognamiglio, called Il Chichibio: ovvero poesia della cucina, which translates as "The Gallant: or the Poetry of Cooking" (and Chichibio, I should also tell you, was a rakish Venetian cook in Boccaccio's Decameron). At Scognamiglio's instigation, I went to great lengths to acquire a bottle of Elisir San Marzano - sadly no longer available - which has a peculiarly Italian, chocolate-coffee-herbal hit. Feel free to use coffee liqueur or rum or, better still, a mixture of the two in its place.

This is a no-churn affair. You mix everything together, wodge it into a loaf tin, freeze and you're done.

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Ingredients

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for the meringue gelato cake

  • 300 ml double cream
  • 30 grams dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
  • 1 tablespoon coffee liqueur (and/or rum)
  • 100 grams shop-bought meringue nests
  • 250 grams raspberries (to serve, optional)

for the chocolate sauce

  • 250 ml double cream
  • 125 grams dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons coffee liqueur (and/or rum)
NIGELLISSIMA

As featured in

NIGELLISSIMA

Method

For the Meringue Gelato Cake:

  1. Line a 450g / 1lb loaf tin with clingfilm, making sure you have enough overhang to cover the top later.
  2. Whip the cream until thick but still soft.
  3. Chop the chocolate very finely so that you have a pile of dark splinters, and fold them into the cream, along with the liqueur.
  4. Now, using brute force, crumble the meringue nests and fold these in, too.
  5. Pack this mixture into the prepared loaf tin, pressing it down with a spatula as you go, and bring the clingfilm up and over to seal the top, then get out more clingfilm to wrap around the whole tin. Freeze until solid, which should take around 8 hours, or overnight.
  6. To serve, unwrap the outer layer of plastic wrap, then unpeel the top and use these bits of long overhanging wrap to lift out the ice-cream brick. Unwrap and unmould it onto a board and cut the frozen meringue cake into slabs to serve. I like to zig-zag a little chocolate sauce over each slice, and sprinkle a few raspberries alongside on each plate.

For the Chocolate Sauce:

  1. Pour the cream into a saucepan and add the tiny bits of chocolate.
  2. Put over a gentle heat and whisk as the chocolate melts, taking the pan off the heat once the chocolate is almost all melted. If the mixture gets too hot, the chocolate will seize, whereas it will happily continue melting in the warm cream off the heat.
  3. Add the liqueur, still off the heat, and whisk again to amalgamate the sauce completely. Pour into a jug, whisking every now and again until it cools to just subtly warm.

For stockists of coffee liqueur please see the Nigellissima Ingredients Stockists list.

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  • Don't be put off by all the cream, this recipe works wonders! I substituted the booze for Camp Coffee and the raspberries for blackberries, and the gelato's delicious. Nigella gave a useful tip on her BBC show about tearing off cling-film: hold the roll vertically and pull the cling-film down. My days of mashed-up cling-film are over. Thanks Nigella! Hannah http://nr11blog.wordpress.com

    Posted by nr11blog.wordpress.com on 18th Oct 2012 at 13.17

  • Just made this. I've swapped the rum for whisky as that was all we had. I've put in a little toasted oats so its actually like a cranachan ice cream cake this time. Hope it works out!

    Posted by debbie72 on 24th Nov 2012 at 18.25

  • I've made it using a little Pedro Ximenez, and adding some flaked almonds as well as the chocolate. De-lish!

    Posted by Chooky on 25th Jan 2013 at 5.06

  • I've tried this many times now as its a great hit with guests. Must say, although the original is good, it's even better when made with mint chocolate which goes very well with the rum. Strawberries also work well as a substitute to raspberries.

    Posted by Jenni.t on 11th Mar 2013 at 20.36

  • I made this heavenly dessert this morning to serve this afternoon. As I could only get chocolate meringue my recipe is slightly altered. Also I left out the alcohol since I'm still breast feeding. The result is still amazingly delicious. Thank you Nigella for a fabulously easy, but incredibly yummy dessert!

    Posted by sugarmouserl on 13th May 2013 at 17.23