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Zabaglione is an Italian dessert - essentially a beautiful little stove-top custard of eggs, sugar, and wine, made frothy by whipping tons of air into it. In France, it's called sabayon, but getting back to Italy for a minute - the translation of the word is so misleading. Sbaglio means mistake, so it follows that sbaglione means big mistake (-ini means little and -one means big in Italian when added to nouns). And this luscious sauce is anything but.
If you want to impress some guests, make this for dessert. The sad news is you sacrifice that light frothiness if you make it ahead. But if you have this all ready to go except cooking it up, it will take less than 10 minutes to make while the coffee is brewing.
Cook's Tips-
Use a bain-marie when cooking up the custard to better control it. I set a small pot of water to boil and nest a bowl filled with the eggs and sugar over it as a make-shift approach.
Add the moscato wine gradually while whisking for a light frothy sauce.
It's important to keep whisking the entire time the custard is cooking up in order to 1) keep the eggs from curdling into scrambled eggs - especially around the sides of the bowl, and 2) to whisk in as much air as possible for a light frothy sauce.
If you must make it ahead, first whip up ⅓ cup whipped cream until fairly stiff. Once the zabaglione is cooled, carefully fold it into the whipped cream. The whipped cream will help to keep it stable for a few hours. The flavor and texture won't be quite the same, but it's a pretty good compromise.
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Moscato Zabaglione with Strawberries
Print Recipe Save Pin Recipe Add to Recipe Collection Add to Shopping ListIngredients
- 4 egg yolks
- ¼ cup Baker's sugar fine sugar - but not to be confused with confectioners sugar
- ¼ cup Moscato d'Asti
- Strawberries
- Chocolate nibs
Instructions
- Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a medium nonreactive metal bowl until completely combined. Set bowl over a medium pot of gently simmering water over enough heat to keep the water simmering.
- Gradually add the wine, whisking constantly.
- Continue whisking until mixture is light and foamy, almost tripled in volume, and begins to thicken to the consistency of cake batter - about 10 minutes. If I raise the whisk from the custard, and drizzle a figure eight on top of the batter, the figure eight remains for 8-10 seconds before completely dissipating into the batter.
- Pour a little zabaglione into 4 dessert dishes, top with strawberries, and drape the remaining sauce on top. Sprinkle with a few chocolate nibs.
Liz
Such a simple, dreamy dessert! I think my guests would be happy to wait the 10 minutes to experience this amazing dessert!
Jenni
Oh, Susan! I love sabayon/zabglione. Yum! I wonder if someone was trying to make a pastry cream one time and whisked like a madman, ending up with a "mistake" of light, frothy instead of rich, creamy? Regardless, I'm glad they made the mistake. Good stuff!
cheri
Hi Susan, never heard of a zabaglione before, but this definitely looks amazing, I bet this is delicious.
laura@motherwouldknow
Susan, I can't decide which I love more - your fabulous recipe, the tips on how to make it, or the linguistics lesson. Let's stand over the stove together, letting the Bialetti work its espresso magic as we make zabaglione and chat!
Megan Myers
I've only made zabaglione once before when I made tiramisu. I forgot how simple it is! Kind of dangerous, really, because who could resist a bowl of that gorgeousness?!
Heather | All Roads Lead to the Kitchen
Maybe the big mistake comes in NOT making Zabaglione... 😉 I'd definitely say it was a mistake not to try this. I love the rich creaminess against the berries - want some!