If you are reading this on Sunday March 12, the finale of The Last of Us is tonight! You should make these Buttery French TV Snacks from NYT Cooking as your crying snacks (I made them for last week’s episode, they are the best thing I’ve ever eaten.)

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Nintendo has stolen my birthday and I want it back.

It’s not like I love my birthday. I never really did anything for it. My birthday is on March 10 and in Canada we have a week-long school holiday called March Break. Every year my birthday falls just before or during March Break.

As a kid, this meant all my friends would be traveling with their parents. For some reason everyone went to Florida growing up. As an adult, all my friends are taking their kids to anywhere but Florida. No one is around so I never really do anything for my birthday.

But still, it’s mine.

And this year I have all my friends on the Internet to celebrate with, so help me take my birthday back from Nintendo by participating in my giveaway on Instagram.

Nintendo has made March 10 into Mario day (because it spells Mar10). But it is not Mario’s birthday. Mario was born on October 11, according to Nintendo Power issue #2 (Sep–Oct 1988). If Nintendo truly wanted to own my birthday, they should have released the Mario movie on Mario Day instead of April 5. (Still, I am so excited for this movie).

March 10 is Marko Day. And I want my Power Star back.

This ridiculous premise is what led me to create my best tasting recipe yet, a birthday cake for me: strawberry latte tiramisu.

You see, in many Mario games – notably Super Mario 64 – Princess Peach invites Mario over for cake. It’s a nondescript cake, but it does have strawberries on top. In Mario Party, the “Peach’s Birthday Cake” level is decorated with lady fingers. Mario is Italian-American.

Rainbow Road leads to tiramisu.

This got me thinking if strawberries and coffee would go together in a tiramisu. I believed they would work together: last summer, my favourite local coffee shop, Lucero, made a strawberry milk iced latte. I avoided trying it until I had a friend try it on my behalf and then it became my favourite dessert coffee of summer. I tried making it at home, with strawberries, then strawberry rhubarb (also great), and it’s just a delight.

Layers of fun

I’ve been writing a lot of heavy content lately. I’ve been watching The Last of Us, which is a heavy show. I’ve been craving lightness and fun. According to legend, tiramisu translates literally to “pick me up” making it perfect for this task.

The name comes from the town Treviso. It was, allegedly, made to feed children and the elderly as a nutrition supplement (10 eggs in the recipe!). It also, allegedly, originated at brothels – to encourage more spending – which explains the coffee and the wine. James Hoffmann has the report.

My takeaway is that tiramisu is for everyone – from babies, to brothels, to babushkas.

Tiramisu is different for everyone who makes it, which is freeing. There is not one tiramisu to rule them all, one recipe to find them, one coffee to brew them all, or in the meringue bind them. I will make my own rules.

I made this strawberry latte tiramisu for my dinner party in February and my friends slammed the table with glee. One said “fuck right off.” Another said “it isn’t even fair to other desserts that this exists.”

It’s a really good recipe.

Tiramisu has a layer of ladyfinger cookies soaked in coffee and alcohol – some people use rum, or bourbon, I used Marsala wine. Then it’s topped with a cream made from egg whites, sugar, mascarpone cheese, and whipped cream. You stack this twice. You dust it in cocoa. You lift it out of your 13x9 dish with the courage of Mario leaping from one platform to another, accepting it might fall but it will still be delicious.

In my recipe I also added a layer of cooked strawberries (from frozen) which complements all of the flavours beautifully. In honour of Princess Peach, my preferred Mario Kart character.

This recipe, like Peach, is the winner.

## I’m sorry, your cheese is in another castle

This recipe is a bit hilarious because it’s historically been a fast, casual food made at home with things you already have. It is really easy to make but actually finding the ingredients can be a challenge in Canada.

You may need to make a few trips to specialty stores, but you can make your own components for the recipe (I’ve included those below).

Strawberries… in winter… in Canada?!

It’s March and that means it’s Harry’s Berry’s season if you’re in California, but it snowed a foot here last week in Ontario. I’ve heard of Harry’s Berry’s, which Americans rave over them – and I tried some last year, and they were… fine? I guess? I don’t think they are the same when they spend 5–7 days on a truck from California to Ontario. I have a really high bar for strawberries, the strawberries grown in Ontario are magical. Bill and Frank would approve.

Good fresh fruit is hard to come by when its winter for half the year. I like to preserve the really good fruit of summer – in jams, in frozen pies, and whole in the freezer. You can pick fruit at its most perfect, delicious, magical ripeness and enjoy it in March. March is the furthest you are away from fresh, local produce. With frozen strawberries you can be reminded of the magic of summer.

Strawberries show you that joy still exists in this world.

Last summer my friend Nigel, using his children as labour under the disguise of a family activity, went strawberry picking. He brought me a bucket worth of strawberries which is more than I could eat before they went bad.

Strawberries freeze very well. All you need to do is wash them – I like to put them in a very large bowl of water, changing the water a few times. The dirt and bugs sink to the bottom. Dry the strawberries on a large towel (gently). Trim the tops off. Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet that fits in your freezer, ideally in a single layer. After an hour or two they should freeze solid and you can transfer them to a glass container or vacuum sealed bag.

You can also throw them all into a freezer bag and hope for the best, but this leads to two problems: half the strawberries become crushed by the weight of your own ambitions, and the other half get glued together into one giant mass of strawberries. Because the large mass freezes slowly the strawberries tend to get freezer burned. No fun.

If you didn’t have a friend use their children to harvest several pounds of strawberries for you, you can still buy locally grown frozen strawberries! If you’re local to me, Knechtel Farms strawberries are available frozen from The Sustainable Market and Full Circle has really great frozen strawberries. Most of the year, frozen strawberries are far superior to sad fresh strawberries trucked in from California. They are red all the way through, not green and white. They are sweet. They are juicy. They are magic.

And we all need some magic right now. We need a little pick me up.

And this is how strawberries are seasonally appropriate for my March birthday tiramisu. Thank you for attending my TED talk.

Of course this is also the perfect no-bake dessert for summer with fresh strawberries.

How do you like your coffee?

Coffee is the main flavour of tiramisu and it upsets me that so many recipes say to “use instant coffee like Nescafe.” First, don’t support Nestle. Second, I love specialty coffee, so when I thought about what coffee to use I tried a few things.

This recipe needs 300ml (1-1/4 cups) or more of coffee.

Many recipes recommend using instant coffee powder, there are tasty and ethical instant coffee brands if you want to go this route. (See also: James Hoffman trying 38 brands of Instant Cofffee. I am a fan of his.)

You can also use strong brewed coffee, but it doesn’t get as intense of a flavour. If you go this route look at using a Moka, a French Press, or cold brew coffee, instead of drip coffee at home.

My preferred method is to use a good quality espresso. I have an espresso machine, so I made my own. You can also buy good espresso for this at your favourite, independently owned coffee shop. A double espresso, which is what you usually get when you order espresso, is roughly 60ml. To get 300ml (or more) coffee ask for 6 double espresso in a large coffee cup. It’s up to you if you tell them it’s for a recipe or let them assume you were up all night with a shovel (Snowstorm? Murder? It’s a mystery!).

This recipe is about having fun, so have fun with your barista.

If you want specialty beans, I’ve used Phil & Sebastian’s “The Standard” (ships worldwide, locally available at Lucero) and ”Sweet Shop” from Square Mile (ships worldwide). Ask your coffee shop for beans that are sweet and chocolatey or fruity.

Or buy instant coffee powder, I’ll never know.

The coffee soak also has Marsala wine and vanilla added to it.

*You can buy ladyfingers from the store, but they’re fun to make and if you mess them up it’s okay because they’re hidden inside of layers of cream.Recipe here.*

Ladyfinger cookies

You can use store bought ladyfingers – look for Savoiardi type (small, dry), not Pavesini type (soft/jumbo). You want the crispier Savoiardi ones. I’ve found they are out of stock quite often. I prefer the Matilde Vincenzi Vincenzovo brand over Gioia Savoiardi, but both work great. You need around 300g, but it depends on the size of your dish. I suggest buying 400g to be safe (2 small packs or 1 big pack) because you don’t want to run out in the middle of the recipe.

I included a recipe below for home-made ladyfingers if you can’t find them at the store, or like me you find making those fun. Ladyfinger cookies are easy to make, great skill building, and taste substantially better than store bought.

If you make your own ladyfinger cookies you can also make them with cocoa powder (chocolate tiramisu!) or black cocoa (Oreo tiramisu!). Maybe next year I’ll make one with ube ladyfingers and yuzu curd as I fully transform into Wario.

*Mascarpone cheese takes 5 minutes to make,recipe is on my website.*

Mascarpone cheese

You can use store bought mascarpone cheese or make your own. As I wrote about previously, it’s hard to find additive-free mascarpone, so I make my own. Recipe is on my website.

For additive free brands in Canada look for mascarpone from Saputo (at Marche Leos), Galbani (at Vincenzos), or store brands from Whole Foods and President’s Choice (at Loblaws). Avoid the following brands because they are chemically thickened milk, and not real cheese: Tre Stelle, Santa Lucia, Emma, Bella Cascara, Salerno and countless other brands. Read the ingredients, make sure it’s only milk, cream, and lemon juice, and don’t spend $20 on it. Saputo is $9.99 at Marche Leos, Tre Stelle is incomprehensibly $19.99 at Zehrs (yes they increased the price. The same brand is only $11.99 at Marche Leos. Shop small, save money!).

I don’t understand how it can be twice the cost for a worse product, so shop small and save money!

If you are making your own mascarpone you need good cream, good milk, a thermometer, and a fine cheese cloth (I used this #90 reusable one). Cream is also problematic, I don’t know why I have to explain that cream isn’t always cream, but it’s not. In Canada, look for cream from Organic Meadow, Hewitt’s, Harmony Organic, or Eby Manor. Avoid the national brands like Lactantia, Sealtest, etc. because they have thickeners added. Read the ingredients.

Marsala wine

Marsala wine is a fortified Italian red wine. It is, allegedly, the traditional alcohol used in tiramisu (which allegedly originated without alcohol to be served to children). Many recipes use rum or bourbon, which you may already have at home. You can use either of those, but Marsala wine is extremely delicious and works really well with both coffee and strawberries.

To make your own Marsala wi– I’M KIDDING!

There are two kinds of Marsala wine, dolce (sweet) and secco (dry). You want dolce (sweet) Marsala. I bought Vito Curatolo Arini 5 Anni Superiore Dolce Marsala, which is only $16.25 for 750ml and is enough for four batches of tiramisu (trust me, you will make four batches). It’s also very delicious as an aperitif.

If you don’t want to buy Marsala wine specially for this then you can use brandy, cognac, dark rum, or bourbon. I imagine someone, somewhere has been making this with Baileys. My friend Marci who tirelessly edits this newsletter reports she has used Kaluha to make tiramisu. I remind you that there are no rules, and if there were rules Marci would not follow them.

The alcohol is not cooked off in this dessert, so if you prefer a non-alcoholic version you need a total of 2/3 cup: use 1/2 cup white grape juice, 3 tablespoons of sherry vinegar, and some more vanilla.

Someone in Italy is getting their shovel after reading this, but I’m in Canada and Tiramisu has no rules.

Eggs

The filling is a bit weird to put together. You separate your eggs, then you blanch the egg yolks, then you whip the egg whites, then you whip cream, then you combine all of these separately whipped elements with cream cheese and Marsala wine. It makes no sense but it works and no you can’t put it all in the mixer at the same time and hope for the best. It will fail.

Traditionally the egg whites are left raw, but that isn’t safe in the US and Canada. Europe has required chickens to be vaccinated against salmonella since the 1980s. The EU has a 50% larger population than the US, but less than 60,000 people get sick annually from salmonella in the EU – compared to 1.35M people getting sick from salmonella in the US (with over 400 deaths per year!). Salmonella isn’t a joke, but our food regulations are. If this bothers you write to your MP/Congressperson.

You can pasteurize your eggs to make a French meringue, but I decided to use Italian Meringue which cooks the eggs (and makes the filling more stable). Some recipes omit the egg whites and use gelatin to stabilize whip cream instead but I find that to be more work and not reliable.

To pasteurize eggs in a sous vide, cook them at 135 for 75 minutes. To pasteurize eggs in a pot, dip them in simmering water for 3 minutes (but you might cook the eggs, discard any cooked egg white).

*Recipe for the tiramisu is on my website.*

For dinner parties and snacking capes

Tiramisu needs to be made ahead of time to allow the flavours to meld together and the filling to set.

There’s a few make ahead tactics here:

Make a 13x9 that serves up to 12 people, great for parties

Keep this in the fridge at least 24 hours, up to 3 days, and serve right out of the fridge.

Make two 9x9 pans, serves up to 6 people twice

Keep one in the fridge, pop one in the freezer.

Tiramisu freezes really well. Thaw overnight in the fridge before serving.

Make several single serving ramekins, serves one person up to 12 times

Perhaps the best way to make this is to make single servings in freezer-safe ramekins. You will never be more than a few minutes from a delicious pick-me-up reminder of summer and your capacity for joy. (It’s also delicious to eat frozen in the middle of the night wearing your bedsheet as your snacking cape.)

Okay, enough joking around.

You can find the recipes on my website here, for free:

I made a few changes this week and I would love your feedback:

If you listened to the audio version of this post, should I include these every week? Should I go back to record the back catalogue? There is also a podcast feed (which might not show up in Apple or Spotify for a few days) if you prefer podcast apps.
Recipes will always be free – this week I linked to the recipes on my website instead of embedding them in the newsletter. Do you prefer the website links, or would you prefer recipes be embedded in the newsletter itself?
Paid subscribers will receive a second email to download their PDF copy of these recipes. Unfortunately I can’t put them in one email as then Substack automatically paywalls the voiceover/podcast and comments, hopefully they change that over time.

You can reply to this email or leave a comment with your feedback!

See you next week,

Marko

*Paid subscribers, look for a second email. If you upgrade after reading this, you’ll see the PDF post on my Substack homepage.*