Pistachio Tiramisu

Hi friends! I hope you’re all having a lovely summer and staying as cool as possible in this heat. England has been hit by another heatwave, which means I’m currently doing everything I can to avoid turning the oven on. So lately I’ve found myself leaning towards desserts that only ask for a fridge instead of an oven. Honestly, I’m not complaining.

So it felt like the perfect moment to finally share my pistachio tiramisu.

If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while, you’ll probably know that tiramisu is one of my all-time favourite desserts. It’s the dessert I make for birthdays, family dinners, holidays… honestly, any excuse is a good enough excuse for tiramisu.

I’ve made the classic version more times than I could possibly count.

So naturally, I was a little sceptical about changing it.

There seem to be two kinds of people when it comes to pistachios — the ones who absolutely love them, and the ones who can’t stand them.

I definitely fall into the first group.

I’ll happily eat good pistachio cream straight from the jar with a cup of espresso. I’ll almost always choose a pistachio cornetto or bombolone if I see one in an Italian café. Pistachio halva has always been my favourite, too.

At the same time, I’m surprisingly selective when it comes to pistachio desserts. I’ve never even felt tempted to try Dubai chocolate because, to me, the combination of milk chocolate and pistachio sounds a little too sweet. I much prefer pistachio when it gets to shine on its own.

That’s exactly why I wasn’t completely convinced this pistachio tiramisu would be my thing.

I was expecting it to be overly sweet and to lose everything I love about a classic tiramisu — the bitterness of espresso, the cocoa, the delicate mascarpone cream.

Instead, it completely surprised me. The pistachio doesn’t overpower the dessert. It simply makes the mascarpone cream even silkier and a little richer, while the coffee, the bitterness of the cocoa and the almond Amaretto keep everything beautifully balanced. It still tastes unmistakably like tiramisu — just with a little extra depth.

I actually made this version a few months ago while I was in Italy, and somehow it felt like exactly the right place for it. Sitting outside, drinking espresso, buying the best mascarpone I could find… it made me appreciate, once again, how much I love Italian food.

Another thing I love about tiramisu is that it asks for almost nothing from you.

No oven.

No decorating.

Just make the cream, dip the savoiardi, layer everything together and pop it into the fridge. A few hours later, dessert is ready.