Matthew's Journal

I ended up combining several recipes, and then faffing some. Here is what I did:

200 ml espresso[1]
500g mascarpone
3 eggs
6 tbsp marsala
4 tbsp caster sugar (or around 50g)
~20 Savoiardi biscuits[2]
dark chocolate to grate over the top
Time: circa 1 hour.
Warning: contains raw egg, and alcohol
I strongly recommend you use an electric whisk for this...
You'll want a flat-bottomed dish to assemble the result in - mine fitted 9 biscuits on its bottom layer

Make espresso, set aside to cool. I doubt anything else coffee-wise will do. I found by the time I came to need the espresso it had cooled enough. At about this point, put the chocolate into the freezer to cool (it grates better this way)

Separate the eggs (keep both whites and yolks). Beat the yolks and the sugar together until it has formed a pale yellow mousse. Soften the mascarpone a little with a spoon, beat in the yolks gradually, then beat in 3tbsp of the marsala (1 tbsp at a time seemed fine to me).

Clean and dry the whisk thoroughly (I find running it under a tap is quite good at this, if a tad messy).

Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Using a spoon, mix these quickly into the mascarpone mix - don't over-do it, though, or it'll lose its volume.

Add the other 3 tbsp marsala to the espresso, and put into a flat-bottomed container you can fit a Savoiardi biscuit in. Dip the biscuits in, sugar-side up, one at a time, and remove immediately (any longer and they'll disintigrate); place sugar-side down in the assembly dish, making a layer. Cover with about half the cheese+egg mix. Make another layer of the biscuits in the same manner, then cover with the rest of the cheese+egg mix.

Dust the top with cocoa, or grated good-quality dark chocolate. Keep in a fridge overnight, and serve chilled.

[1]Our 9-cup espresso maker made about 410ml, which was around 400ml after cooling. With the marsala added, there was about 450ml, and I had around 200ml left. I'd make more espresso than you need, rather than too little.

[2] aka Lady's fingers. In Tesco in Coventry, these were with the ice-cream toppings and cones, not with cakes nor biscuits nor home-baking. I started with a 24-pack, and had 5 left over.

ETA: This was Very Good Indeed. I reckon there are about 6 servings in this, or 4 portions for hungry people.

ETA: We tried this with own-brand sponge fingers, and it was noticably less good - they don't absorb enough of the coffee+marsala mix.

ETA: the mixture curdled on me once. My best hypothesis is that this was because the ingredients were room-temperature when I started, rather than fridge-temperature...