May 17th- San Pasquale Baylon
Every picture tells a story and every story……. has a start.
Yesterday I recieved a gift from a winemaker Mario Zanobini, a clay plaque of Saint Pasquale Baylon, saying that he was the patron saint of cooks.
Others say that San Lorenzo is the patron saint of cooks.
But, there are cooks and there are cooks.
In looking a little closer, Saint Baylon, according to Wikipedia, is patron saint of pastry chefs, said to have invented Zabaione!
I like that version!
So much so I think we should all whip some up to have on fruit!
The basic recipe for Zabaione is to whip one egg yolk per person with one tablespoon of sugar and one tsp of liquore, I prefer a little less liquore.
Whisk the yolk and sugar in a bowl over a pot of hot water
when it has tripled in volume, whisk in the liquore
Most people use Marsala, a sweet wine from Sicily.
I prefer the drier Vin Santo, a dry Tuscan Sherry.
I remember Zabaione being served over cold berries and fruit in all the Italian restaurants in San Francisco, hearing the clanging of the whisk in a copper bowl.
Today I have some of the first cherries and peaches
Buon San Baylon!
Funny, egg yolks and sugar whisked together are often added to coffee in
northern Italy as a Pick -me- up, the first tiramisu???
tiramisu is egg yolks and sugar whisked until tripled, then mascarpone cheese is added and the whites whipped and folded in to create more volume.
Cold zabaione also has the whites folded back in.
In addition to making me lick my chops, this post also helps me understand the history of the Sabayon. Thank you!
Yum! I actually ate some zabaione gelato this afternoon, a day late for the festa, but still tasty 🙂