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Your support makes all the difference.I had this pudding at Casa Buitoni, the home of the pasta people, in Tuscany. It didn't have a name, so I've come up with my own. Because it reminded me of a cross between the very English Eton mess (strawberries, meringue and cream) and a monte bianco, a very rich Italian Christmas dessert with lots of chestnut purée and cream.
The description was a little vague and in Italian, so I had to rely on my powers of detection, and managed to identify meringue, pine nuts, honey and chestnut purée all bound in a mousse-like mixture. It could just as well have been a sweet ending to a wintery dinner, except that it was sitting in a pool of mashed up strawberries and hit the spot blissfully after a long, typically Tuscan dinner. And if Tuscany doesn't make you feel summery I don't know what does.
You don't need to make a proper mousse for this, because the mixture more or less turns itself into a mousse naturally.
The chestnut purée comes in cans. If you can't find puréed chestnut then blend some of the canned or vacuum-packed ones coarsely in a blender with a tablespoon of caster sugar dissolved in a tablespoon of water. Use ready-made meringues if you don't fancy making your own. Any honey will do, but chestnut honey (Sainsbury's do an excellent Italian one) suits this recipe very well.
200ml double cream
2tbsp clear honey
3tbsp chestnut purée (this comes in cans from good supermarkets)
2tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted and chopped
100g meringue, roughly broken up
250g ripe strawberries
1tbsp caster sugar (optional if the strawberries are not so sweet)
Whisk the honey and chestnut purée together in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water for a few minutes until it becomes more liquid. As soon as you've done that whisk the cream until almost fully whipped then carefully fold in the honey mixture with the whisk and leave to set in the fridge for an hour.
Meanwhile put the strawberries into a food processor with the caster sugar, if you are using it, and coarsely blend them so you are left with some big chunks of strawberry.
To serve, fold the meringue and pine nuts into the cream mixture, spoon the strawberry sauce into pasta or dessert bowls and spoon the cream mixture with a large serving spoon on top.
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