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Italian Cuisine Expert and Food Blogger
Guido Pedrelli
Guido Pedrelli, the mastermind behind Nonna Box, has honed his culinary expertise for decades, inspired by family feasts in Emilia-Romagna. Mentored by his restaurateur nonna, he mastered Italian classics and furthered his skills with professional culinary studies in desserts and gelato making from Mec3. Today, he shares this rich legacy and authentic recipes through Nonna Box.
If you know a bit of Italian, you may expect this to be listed as a soup in the starter section on the menu, as Zuppa Inglese literally translates to “English Soup.”
But, in fact, it’s actually a delicious classic traditional Italian trifle dessert that is made by layering delicate ladyfingers dipped in liqueur with smooth vanilla and chocolate pastry cream that is then chilled to perfection and dusted with cocoa powder. It’s a sinfully good dessert found in many authentic Italian cookbooks and restaurants.
Make the pastry cream base: The first step is to make the pastry cream. To do this, bring the milk to a very low boil in a medium-sized saucepan with the vanilla bean and a bit of lemon zest. While the milk is coming to a boil, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a large bowl until well combined.
Then add the flour and whisk well once more. Remove the vanilla bean before the next step. Now, while whisking constantly, slowly add the hot milk to the bowl with the egg yolk mixture. You must continue whisking the entire time and add the milk slowly a little at a time for the pastry cream to be smooth. Then pour the egg yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan and return to low heat while continuing to whisk until the pastry cream has thickened up a bit, but is nice and smooth. This should take about 5 to 6 minutes.
Flavor the pastry cream: Remove the pastry cream from the heat and separate it into two bowls. Sprinkle one bowl of the pastry cream with a bit of sugar, then mix, and cover. Then add the cocoa powder to the other bowl of pastry cream, mix until smooth, and cover. Now, allow both bowls of pastry cream to cool.
Assemble the dessert: Pour the Alchermes into a low bowl. Dip the ladyfingers (or sponge cake) into the Alchermes for about 2 seconds on both sides to sop up the color and flavor. Place a base layer of the dipped ladyfingers into one large or several small single-serving glass bowls or cylinder-shaped dishes.
Then cover the ladyfingers with a layer of some of the chocolate cream. Now, add another layer of ladyfingers and cover with some of the vanilla pastry cream.
Then continue to alternate layers of ladyfingers and pastry cream until you fill the dish. It’s a good idea to place the ladyfingers perpendicular to the previous layer to help with stability.
Chill the Zuppa Inglese and serve: Once all the layers have been formed, seal with plastic wrap, and put the dish(es) in the refrigerator to chill and set for about 2 hours.
To serve, top the dessert with whipped cream or dust with cocoa powder.
However, for this easy Zuppa Inglese recipe, we will be focusing on the Emilia Romagna style of this classic Italian dessert. It is the most traditional variation with the longest history.
Make your own homemade lady fingers or your own Italian sponge cake if you decide to use this instead.
But why is this elegant Italian trifle dessert made of ladyfingers, liqueur and custard called Zuppa Inglese? Truth be told, there is no easy answer.
There are many stories of how this yummy dessert came to be called “English Soup,” from celebratory dinners for Admiral Nelson in Naples, to English housemaids throwing together leftovers in Tuscany. So there are plenty of possible explanations, but no one really knows.
One idea in John Mariani’s Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink even suggests that it could simply be a breakdown of the word inzuppare which means “to sop”, as the ladyfingers in Zuppa Inglese sop up the liqueur.
But all stories aside, most people believe that a dish similar to modern Zuppa Inglese began being developed in the Emilia Romagna and Tuscany regions of Italy sometime in the 1500s.
Not as exciting as some of the other stories, but the most likely explanation, is that Victorian-era English expatriates were craving something similar to an English trifle and ended up substituting typical trifle ingredients for the local Italian equivalents. So pound cake became sponge cake, English custard became Italian pastry custard (or crema), and so on.
Over the years as the dessert spread throughout Italy many regional and even city-specific variations were developed. This created a dessert that is quite versatile and a decadent ending to a wide variety of meals.
Alchermes is a spicy-sweet Italian liqueur that is a key ingredient in most traditional Zuppa Inglese recipes. It is a medium-strength liqueur (21% to 35% abv) made by adding cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, vanilla, and other herbs and flavoring agents to a neutral spirit.
Its striking red color was originally created by adding small insects known as Kermes to the ingredient mix in a similar way that is done with Campari and many other Italian amaro liquers. This too was the source of the name, an Italianization of the Arab al’kermes.
Nowadays, these insects are rarely used when making Alchermes. They have very little impact on the flavor, so you aren’t missing out on anything if you opt for Alchermes, or another substitute, without them.
One recommended substitute is rum with grenadine (for color) or simply grenadine syrup if you want to make an alcohol-free version of Zuppa Inglese.
If you can’t find a bottle of Alchermes, you can always make your own. It will come close to replicating the original if you have a couple of weeks to wait.