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 1/3 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.
Moscato Zabaglione with Strawberries
Ingredients
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup Baker's sugar fine sugar - but not to be confused with confectioners sugar
- 1/4 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.
Welcome to Progressive Eats, our virtual version of a Progressive Dinner Party. This month’s theme is Wine and Cheese and is hosted by Jenni Field, who blogs at Pastry Chef Online. For our Wine and Cheese Theme, everyone has made a recipe that contains wine, cheese or both. We have some sweets for you, some savories and even a refreshing wine-based beverage!
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, a progressive dinner involves going from house to house, enjoying a different course at each location. With Progressive Eats, a theme is chosen each month, members share recipes suitable for a delicious meal or party, and you can hop from blog to blog to check them out.
Wine and Cheese !
Savories
- Port Wine Cheese Ball from Pastry Chef Online
- Cheese Fondue Pasta Ragout (Gluten-Free) from The Heritage Cook
- Apricot Riesling Mustard from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen
- Chicken Scallopini from Stetted
- Chicken with Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce from Never Enough Thyme
Sweets
- Red Wine Jelly from Creative Culinary
- Italian Wine Biscuits from Mother Would Know
- Moscato Zabaglione with Strawberries from The Wimpy Vegetarian
- Pears Poached in Wine with Lemon Mascarpone from SpiceRoots
- Mascarpone Cheesecake from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
Bonus Beverage
- Sarasota Lemonade from Miss in the Kitchen
We have a core group of 12 bloggers, but we will always need substitutes and if there is enough interest would consider additional groups. To see our upcoming themes and how you can participate, please check out the schedule at Creative Culinary or contact Barb for more information.
Liz says
Such a simple, dreamy dessert! I think my guests would be happy to wait the 10 minutes to experience this amazing dessert!
Jenni says
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 says
Hi Susan, never heard of a zabaglione before, but this definitely looks amazing, I bet this is delicious.
laura@motherwouldknow says
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 says
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 says
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!