6 hard-cooked egg yolks
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons rum
3 tablespoons maraschino (cherry liqueur)
24 lady fingers, split
3/4 cup Marsala or sweet sherry
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

Whipped cream, optional

Mash the egg yolks with an electric mixer or with a wooden spoon.

Add the butter, beating until very fluffy and light. Gradually beat in the sugar, again until very light. This should take about 3 minutes with an electric mixer, or 10 with a wooden spoon.

Beat in the rum very gradually, then the maraschino.

Beat again until very smooth and light.

Soak the lady fingers in the Marsala.

Line the bottom of an oblong mold or pan with half the lady fingers.

Spread with half the cream mixture. Beat the cocoa into the remaining half, and spread over the cream mixture.

Cover with remaining lady fingers.

chill for 6 hours or overnight.

Turn out onto a serving dish.

Decorate with whipped cream, if desired.

Serves: 6-8.

The recipe in this entry was taken from "The Pleasures of Italian Cooking" by Romeo Salta, with an Introduction by Myra Waldo, photographs by Roberto Caramico, assisted by John Ciofalo. The book was published in New York by The MacMillan Company in 1962. For the complete copyright-free cook book visit www.archive.org.... Salta's "Torrone Gelato" is very similar to what now goes by the name, "zuppa inglese." Nowadays, "zuppa inglese" is always described as a cake even though it could very easily be seen as a pudding. It seems that in the 1960s when Salta's book was published, the word, "torrone," did not only describe the hard almond nougat North Americans have become so familiar with, but it also encompassed puddings.... Note and photo: Mary Melfi.

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