Tiramisu

The real kind! Since I really suck at baking, I thought I'd give this classic no-bake Italian dessert a spin, and I was successful. Even our friend Stefano, whose family owns Lena's, the delicious Italian restaurant in town, approved. Yesss. So, as I'm not always a fan of following one recipe (mostly because I'm prone to forgetting an ingredient or two), I used a hybrid of this very upscale-looking Olive & Vine recipe, and the simpler recipe on the mascarpone container. I think I gained three pounds in the couple of days it took us to devour this, and that was with a whole lotta restraint!

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
Granulated sugar, 1/6 & 2 tbsp., divided
12 oz mascarpone, softened
1/8 c. Marsala cooking wine
6 oz Italian roast coffee, cooled
16 ladyfingers or marguerite cookies
1 1/2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Ground cinnamon or chocolate

-whisk 1/6 c sugar with yolks for 2 minutes, then place mixture in double boiler over saucepan of simmering water. Add Marsala. Cook until mixture is 150 degrees. Set aside to cool.
-in separate bowl, whip mascarpone with 1/6 c sugar (more if you like it sweeter) and egg whites. Mix egg white mixture and mascarpone mixture.
-in a bowl, mix coffee with remaining sugar and vinegar, and a tbsp of Marsala or rum if desired.
-dip 8 cookies into coffee until soft, and place on bottom of Pyrex pan. Spoon and smooth mascarpone over cookies and sprinkle with cinnamon or chocolate. Repeat for second layer.
-refrigerate for six hours, covered, if you can wait that long.