RECIPE: The best Tiramisu of your LIFE by Nonna Carmela

The best dessert I've ever made, courtesy of a Sicilian Nonna.

Hello all, from a still sweltering Athens.

If you’re in less sticky climes and finally getting a bit of sunshine, I am happy for you. It’s about to be peak garden party / dinner on a roof terrace / balcony season and in celebration of that, I want to share a sneak peek into my next book in the form of this heavenly tiramisu recipe that comes off the back of my recent Nonna odyssey in Sicilia…

As if deigned by the gods, Nonna Carmela happens to be in Catania on the same dates that I arrive in Sicily. She is taking a break from her twelve bedroom house in the Sicilian countryside to live with her daughter in the city for a few monthsa and lucky for me, our dates match up. Carmela is the Nonna to welcome me back to my beloved Sicily after my four year hiatus. 

In true Sicilian style, she has decided on a Pasta a la Norma as our ‘primo’ and also ‘tacks on’ a bonus dish of tiramisu for me - which I am hugely excited about because there is no better dessert in my opinion.

Pasta a la Norma sings of the flavours of a Mediterranean summer. Rich pomodoro passata, fragrant basil and sweet aubergine slick with olive oil make for the perfect midweek meal. It also tastes delicious cold and can be made in advance and eaten as a pasta salad at a garden party or in a picnic. Recipe for this one will be in my new MESOGEIO but I’m too excited after testing the Tiramisu to hold off on that one…

Carmela’s Tiramisu is light, creamy and not too heavy on the sugar. It’s less sweet than others I’ve tasted but strikes just the right balance between creamy, sweet and kicky (from the coffee). It’s also damn easy to whip up and demands prep the day before to ensure a less sloppy consistency when it’s out of the fridge.

Enjoy this one all summer. It’s my 2024 go-to. I polished half a tray off solo just last week. (Life solo parenting a toddler). Scroll down for the recipe. First, here’s Carmela on her Tiramisu…

The only down side of the Tiramisu is that it wasn’t invented by Sicilians. It’s made all over Italy and we eat it a lot on the island, despite it not being traditionally a Sicilian dessert like cannolo or granite. My husband adored Tiramisu so I made it for him very frequently throughout our lives together. I would whip up a big tray of it and he’d have a slice of it in the afternoons. “Carmela, tesoro mio, whatever you make, you make with love,” he’d always says. He was a musician and truly the kindest most brilliant man I have ever known. I was very lucky in love. The only down side was him leaving before me. He died six months ago and I sometimes wonder how I can possibly keep going. I suppose I’m still making tiramisu for him, in his memory.

With him it was love at first sight and you wouldn’t believe that we’re from the same island but we met in the Swiss Alps! I had five brothers growing up and they were so protective of me that I had never been out dancing before in my life until that holiday to Switzerland when I was eighteen. We were from a small village and there really weren’t any places to go to dance. He played the saxophone in a band at a club we went to and from the minute we walked in, I was captivated by him. He asked me to dance that night and I said no. It’s something he teased me about throughout our years together but honestly I had to say no because I had no idea how to dance. 

Carmela, born 1940 in Messina, Sicily

Nonna Carmela’s ULTIMATE Tiramisu to beat all others