Ingredients

• 300ml/10½fl oz double cream
• 30g/1oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids
• minimum)
• 1 tbsp Elisir San Marzano (or coffee liqueur and/or rum)
• 8 meringue nests
• 250ml/9fl oz double cream
• 125g/4½oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids
• minimum)
• finely chopped or in buttons made for melting
• 2 tbsp Elisir San Marzano (or coffee liqueur and/or rum)
• 250g/9oz raspberries
• to serve

Directions

• Line a 450g/1lb loaf tin with cling film
• making sure you have enough overhang to cover the top later.
• Whip the cream until thick but still soft.
• Chop the chocolate very finely so that you have a pile of dark splinters
• and fold them into the cream
• along with the liqueur.
• Now
• using brute force
• crumble the meringue nests and fold these in
• too.
• Pack this mixture into the prepared loaf tin
• pressing it down with a spatula as you go
• and bring the cling film up and over to seal the top
• then get out more cling film to wrap around the whole tin. Freeze until solid
• which should take around eight hours or overnight.
• About an hour before serving
• make the chocolate sauce. Pour the cream into a saucepan and add the tiny bits of chocolate. Put over a gentle heat and whisk as the chocolate melts
• taking the pan off the heat once the chocolate is almost all melted. If the mixture gets too hot
• the chocolate will seize
• whereas it will happily continue melting in the warm cream off the heat.
• Add the liqueur
• still off the heat
• and whisk again to amalgamate the sauce completely. Pour into a jug
• whisking every now and again until it cools to the desired temperature. If you feel the sauce has thickened too solid
• then stand the jug in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes
• whisking frequently
• before pouring. Or I whisk in a shot - about two tablespoons - of hot espresso.
• To serve the gelato cake
• unwrap the outer layer of cling film
• then unpeel the top and use these bits of long overhanging wrap to lift out the ice-cream brick. Unwrap and unmould it onto a board and
• using a sharp
• heavy knife (dipped in hot water between each slice) cut the frozen meringue cake into slabs to serve. I like to zig-zag a little chocolate sauce over each slice and sprinkle a few raspberries alongside on each plate.