This delicate, fruity sorbet—pastel-pretty and dotted with brilliant red pomegranate seeds—reminds me of a festive glass of pink Champagne. Come September, when our pomegranates ripen in Provence, this appears at the dinner table frequently. The touch of honey here is essential, bringing a depth of flavor that sugar alone cannot provide.
If you're going to take on an ambitious dessert, it had better look and taste spectacular. This is one of those creations — a dome of cake filled with alternating layers of almond and pistachio mousses, fresh raspberries, and finished with billows of whipped cream. It comes to the table looking like a great white snowdrift studded with fresh raspberries.
Quince is the most luscious fall fruit, but not as widely known or easily found as it should be. It holds its secrets tightly inside; quince is very astringent and not pleasant to eat when raw, but when cooked with sugar it turns coral-pink and delicious. It's also very high in pectin, which means that it is practically perfect for sorbet. This fragrant sorbet, spiced with star anise and vanilla, is thick and smooth — more like a sherbet than an icy sorbet — and it makes a wonderful accompaniment to autumn gingerbread and apple cake.
Ingredients
Smoked almonds bring new life to the ever-popular salted caramel sundae.
Sam Arnold, creator of The Fort Restaurant in Morrison, Colorado, and western food historian, introduced me to this idea. This is my improvisation on his dessert.
I found this recipe for one of the world’s easiest but most delicious desserts in a rather fabulous book, by chef and “culinary philosopher” Gioacchino Scognamiglio, called Il Chichibio: Ovvero Poesia Della Cucina, which translates as “The Gallant: or the Poetry of Cooking” (and Chichibio, I should also tell you, was a rakish Venetian cook in Boccaccio’s Decameron). At Scognamiglio’s instigation, I went to great lengths to acquire a bottle of Elisir San Marzano, which has a peculiarly Italian, chocolate-coffee-herbal hit. Feel free to use coffee liqueur or rum or, better still, a mixture of the two in its place. This is a no-churn affair. You mix everything together, wodge it into a loaf pan, freeze, and you’re done. I like this with a few raspberries to tumble around and a chocolate sauce to Jackson Pollock over it.
Blurring the lines between ice cream and mousse, simplicity and finesse, nostalgia and novelty, this is the kind of dessert that’s hard to categorize but easy to love.
Popsicle molds are inexpensive, but don’t hesitate to turn the whole batch into a large container and serve it as sorbet. Let’s keep this short and sweet: these frozen pops are indecently delicious and easy. The angels had to be on Sally’s shoulders when she conjured this one up. There’s such an intense hit of chocolate you won’t believe there’s not a jot of fat in them, and they’re just the comic relief needed at the end of an impressive meal.
You could finish a supper of beans and burgers on a high note with this dessert, or bring it in to be the finale of a fancy dinner party.