Italian Tartufo

Casinò di Sanremo is an entertainment complex located on the Italian Riviera. The building the casino is housed in officially opened in 1902, many, many moons ago. This building with its Art Nouveau architecture still stands in Sanremo, to spite being around during the war. It has once closed its doors for a couple of years only to open them again half a year after World War II ended. It hosts a theatre, a roof garden, pubs and restaurants, surely, you’ll be able to find some Tartufo served there when taking a break from the roulette tables. But don’t be upset if you can’t get to Italy or even the casino right now, what you can do is make this delicious traditional dessert at home, in just over two hours following the recipe below. The recipe is for two, but I doubt you’d want to share.

Ingredients

  • Two maraschino cherries
  • ½ cup crushed chocolate biscuits
  • ½ cup chocolate ice-cream
  • ½ cup caramel/coffee ice-cream
  • 1 tsp coconut oil, melted
  • 60g finely chopped dark chocolate

Directions

Before you get started, let the ice cream stand for a few minutes to make it easier to work with, don’t let it melt too much because you’ll be refreezing the desert and you don’t want it to separate and crystalize. Stirring the ice cream, a bit will speed up the process but remember you want the texture to be soft enough to mould it but not melted sufficient to drip while you are waiting for that place the crushed biscuits in a bowl, ready for dunking and bring some water to the boil in preparation for melting the chocolate.

Now scoop up your coffee or caramel ice cream with an ice cream scoop and push a cherry to the middle, covering it up. Coat a nice thick layer of chocolate ice cream into two teacups, insert the previously moulded ice cream balls and cover over the top with more chocolate ice cream. Flip these two delicious mounds onto the crumbed biscuits and coat all over, using a tablespoon to assist you to not fiddle with the deserts too much.

Place these two tempting treats back into the freezer while preparing the next step (trust me it will be well worth the wait) Now in a glass bowl, place over the simmering water, slowly melt the chocolate adding the coconut oil as it readies.

Then remove the ice cream “truffles” from the deep freeze and pour the chocolate over, starting at the top middle and working in a circular motion moving out to make sure the entire ice cream dessert is covered. Place these into the freezer one last time for about 2 hours. Serve your dinner, delicious lasagne or mouth-watering pasta, as a suggestion, and finish off your meal with this homemade Italian dessert and watch the pure pleasure spread over your partners face as they take their first bite.