Semifreddo with pine-nuts, rosemary, chocolate and almond brittle

 

A little, wonderfully creamy dessert represents the perfect way to celebrate the end of a year and the beginning of a new one, don’t you think? Parfait, what’s in a name?

Whether it’s for the last or the first meal of the year, this lovely semifreddo will put you in the right mood for sweet new beginnings. A bit of sweetness to start the year, who doesn’t need that?

The aromatic flavour of the rosemary perfectly marries the intense, pleasantly unctuous savouriness of chocolate and pine-nuts. This magical herb infuses the rich syrup prepared with Marsala, the wonderful fortified wine from Sicily, and adds a special touch to the parfait.

So make it a little magical ritual by setting your intention while you eat it: “The new year is going to be amazing and filled with sweetness”. Energy flows where intention goes, did you know that? So make sure you prepare yourself for the abundance and sweetness of life!

Nicoletta and her Team wish you a great year.

 

Witchy fun facts: rosemary is said to purify the air when burned, to help attract good energies, to protect from bad luck and to ward off nightmares. So use lots of it! 🙂

 

Semifreddo con pinoli, rosmarino, cioccolato e croccante alle mandorle

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

For the parfait:
6 egg yolks (pasteurized ones, if you wish)
160 gr. honey
80 gr. pine-nuts
4 dl. whipped cream
50 gr. dark chocolate

For the sauce:
6 sprigs of fresh rosemary
8 tablespoons of sugar
1 dl. water
1 dl. of Marsala or other sweet liqueur wine

For the croccante:
245 gr. sugar
50 gr. slivered almonds
3,5 tablespoons of water
½ teaspoon of lemon juice

PARFAIT: whisk the egg yolks with the honey.

Chop the chocolate coarsely.

Chop the pine-nuts coarsely and add them to the egg yolks together with the chocolate.

In the meantime, whip the cream thoroughly. It needs be very stiff otherwise you’ll get ice crystals in your parfait.

Add the whipped cream to the egg yolks and mix everything carefully folding it in from top to bottom (avoid too much stirring), so that the air in the whipped ingredients stays inside the mixture and the semifreddo gets nice and fluffy.

Pour the cream into small molds (I usually line them with plastic foil first) and place in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

SYRUP: prepare a syrup by boiling 12 tablespoons of sugar, 2 deciliters of water, the Marsala wine and 4 rosemary twigs. Allow to cool, remove the sprigs / leaves and set aside.

CROCCANTE: put sugar, water and lemon juice in a heavy bottomed pan and let the sugar melt completely and turn golden (make sure it doesn’t get too dark). Add the slivered almonds, stir well and pour the mixture over a flat surface covered with parchment paper. Allow to cool completely and then break into pieces.

Serve the parfaits with a little rosemary syrup and garnish with fresh rosemary leaves and some crumbled croccante.

TIP: you can also make one big parfait by pouring all the cream inside a cake mold.