Frozen Nougat and Chocolate Dessert

ingredients

• 3/4 cup hard Italian nougat, torrone, with almonds
• 6 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate fragmented into small pieces
• 1 tablespoon dark rum
• A 2 quarts bowl or slightly larger
• A pinch of salt

directions

Use a sturdy chopping knife to cut the nougat into small pieces, then grind it to a granular consistency in the food processor.

Separate the eggs, keeping only 4 of the whites.

Pour the yolks into a mixing bowl, adding all the sugar. Whip them until they form a foamy mass.

In another bowl, preferably a chilled steel one, whip the cream until it is quite stiff.

Add the whipped cream, the chocolate bits, the rum, and 1 1/4 cups of the ground nougat to the beaten egg yolks, mixing well to distribute all the ingredients uniformly.

In a clean bowl, whip the 4 reserved egg whites together with a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks. Fold them gently into the egg yolk, cream, chocolate, and nougat batter.

Sprinkle the remaining pulverized nougat on the inside of the 2 quarts bowl and over it pour the dessert's batter. Pull a sheet of plastic film tightly over the bowl and place it in the freezer. It is ready to be served the following day, but it will keep, as I have done, a full week.

When ready to serve, take the bowl from the freezer and remove the plastic film. Choose a plate with a lip whose inner diameter fits comfortably over the opening of the bowl. Soak a dishtowel in very hot water and wrap it around the bowl. Slide the blade of a long, thin knife inside the bowl to loosen the dessert from its sides. Set the plate upside down over the bowl, hold the bowl and plate firmly together, and give them a good shake. You will feel the dessert come away from the bowl and drop onto the serving plate.