Zabaione: Italy’s oldest dessert, still misunderstood.

Zabaione is the oldest recorded Italian dessert. A version of it appears in Piedmontese cookbooks from the fifteenth century. It is also, structurally, the most fundamental — egg yolks and sugar beaten over heat, with a fortified wine to add flavour and lower the coagulation temperature. Every Italian pastry cream, every mousse, every semifreddo that begins with whipped yolks owes its technique to the zabaione.

It is served warm, in a glass, with a biscuit alongside to dip. It should be drunk more than eaten — the texture is just thick enough to coat a spoon but still flows freely. Getting this right is a matter of temperature and motion. Too hot and the eggs scramble. Too cold and it never thickens. Too little whisking and it separates in the glass.

Marsala versus Moscato

The traditional recipe uses dry Marsala — the Sicilian fortified wine that appears throughout Italian cooking. In Piedmont, where zabaione originated, the preferred wine is Moscato d’Asti, which produces a lighter, more floral dessert. Both are correct. The wine determines the entire character of the dish: Marsala gives warmth and depth; Moscato gives delicacy and fruit. Choose accordingly.

“Zabaione is the most honest dessert there is. Three ingredients, eight minutes, complete attention. You cannot fake it and you cannot hide behind technique. Either the eggs are right or they are not.”— GUIDO ALCIATI, GUIDO DA COSTIGLIOLE, PIEDMONT