I am supposed to be watching my food intake as I continue to prep for my test. Let’s not call it a diet, as that traps me a bit. So…this is cheating a bit but to adhere to my mindful food intake, I just had one serving.

Serves: 2

Ingredients

For the phyllo wrapped banana:
3 sheets of phyllo dough
1/4 cup of finely chopped pistachio nuts
2 ripe bananas
6 TBs. of melted butter

For the pistachio vanilla ice cream:
8 oz. of vanilla bean ice cream
2 TBs. of honey
2 4 oz. ramekins
1/4 cup of chopped pistachio nuts

Preparation

For the phyllo wrapped banana:
1. Preheat the oven 375 degrees F.
2. Melt the butter in a small pan. I don’t like microwaving to melt butter because of structural change of the butter.
3. Lay one sheet of thawed phyllo dough and brush generously with the melted butter. Sprinkle the the sheet with the pistachio nuts.
4. Repeat with the other two phyllo sheets.
5. Cut the phyllo sheets in half on the vertical.
6. Place a banana on each half and roll them up.
7. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with pistachio nuts.
8. Bake until golden. Approximately 15-20 mins.

For the pistachio encrusted vanilla ice cream:
1. Set the ice cream at room temperature til softened but still firm.
2. Brush some honey into each ramekin.
3. Sprinkle the pistachio nuts into the ramekin and roll them around in the ramekins to get good coverage.
4. Spoon the vanilla ice cream into each ramekin, cover with saran wrap and place into freezer until hardened.

Serve with a simple chocolate sauce and fresh berries.

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This recipe is really for K. She emailed me the other day and asked for suggestions on what to do with 7 lbs. of blueberries. I love getting these questions! My brother was in a cook off a few weeks ago and the ingredient was mushrooms. He asked me for a dessert dish… I said, a tart with ground mushrooms crust, mascarpone creme, with fresh strawberries and a reduced balsamic syrup. He didn’t make it. I think that’s why he lost the cook off.

Let’s get back to K. This recipe doesn’t take care of 7 lbs. of berries. It’s a start and I’ve got a blueberry almond tart recipe in the works.

This is a really rich dessert. Zabaglione is a custard that’s usually spiked with Marsala wine. I like to use Port and sometimes a sweet Moscato.

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

For the Mascarpone
1 lb. of Mascarpone cream at room temperature
1/4 cup of powdered sugar
1 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract

For the Zabaglione
4 egg yolks
4 TBs. or to taste- sometimes, if the mood strikes, I’ll add up to 1/2 cup of sugar. =P
3 TBs. of port

1 pint of blue berries and some cookies for garnish

Preparation

For the Zabaglione
1. Beat the egg yolks until they’re light and fluffy. I’d use a double boiler if I had one but a heatproof glass bowl, over a pan with simmering water does the trick.
2. Whisk in the sugar.
3. Add the port wine.
4. Whisk over simmering heat until cream begins to thicken. When you start seeing little bubbles forming, it’s good to go. Be careful not to boil.
5. Let it stand to cool a bit.

For the Mascarpone cream
1. In a mixer, whisk the cream, vanilla extract and powdered sugar until it’s smooth and thickened.
2. Smash out the mascarpone cream into a bowl and fold in the whipped cream.
3. Stream in the warm Zabaglione and mix until smooth.

Spoon some of the Mascarpone Zabaglione into a glass, top with blueberries and serve with some almond cookies. I hope you enjoy it, K!

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