Name: Il Falconiere: Steamed Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Sauce
Yield: Serves 10
Ingredients: 8 ounces (1 stick) butter, plus more for the ramekins; 3/4 cup flour, plus more for the ramekins; 1 cup fine sugar; 4 eggs; 3 tablespoons rum (or Tia Maria); 2 tablespoons strong coffee; 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 cup ground cacao (high-quality cocoa); 4 pears, peeled and diced (optional); Vanilla Sauce (recipe follows); Chocolate bar or chocolate-covered coffee beans; 1 quart heavy cream; 1/2 vanilla pod; 8 egg yolks; 4 tablespoons fine sugar

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Il Falconiere: Steamed Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Sauce

When we cook with friends at Silvia Baracchi's school, Cooking Under the Tuscan Sun, we often whip up this very simple dessert. I never thought of chocolate as seasonal, but in Tuscany, it's considered more appropriate for fall and winter. Seldom do you find it on a summer menu, perhaps because we have a plethora of plums, melons, and white peaches for hot weather dolce. With this, Silvia suggests a full-bodied sweet red wine with enough alcohol to "clean your mouth." Her choices are a passito from Pantelleria or an aged Recioto. I'm partial to the passito from Arnaldo Capraia.

Recipe notes

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