Zuppa Inglese all'Alchermes (Italian Alchermes Layered Custard Dessert) Zuppa inglese all'alchermes is the layered custard dessert of Emilia Romagna in its most recognisable form, with a band of scarlet between pale vanilla custard and dark chocolate. Alchermes puts that band there: an old spiced liqueur, sweet and faintly medicinal, whose first job here is visual. Everything below protects that colour. The soak is mixed cold and never warmed, the sponge fingers are wetted on

Zuppa Inglese Emiliana (Italian Emilia Layered Custard Dessert) Zuppa inglese is the layered custard dessert of Emilia Romagna: pastry cream, a chocolate version of the same cream, and savoiardi soaked in alchermes. There is no fruit in it, no jelly and no whipped cream, which is why it is not a trifle. What separates a clean spoonful from a collapsing heap is not the recipe. It is the wait. This one is built to settle under its own weight in a dish with vertical walls, and i