Belinda Jeffery

This is the most delicious semifreddo. It has the texture of smooth ice-cream and the intense perfume and flavour of perfectly ripe raspberries. I serve it with sweet white nectarines or ripe figs and a scattering of fresh raspberries. It’s just like eating a mouthful of summer sunshine!

Serves 4 – 6

Purée the raspberries and any of their juices in a blender. Pour half the purée into a large fine sieve sitting over a bowl. Use the back of a spoon to rub the purée through the sieve to remove the seeds. Scrape off the underside of the sieve as you go since a lot of purée collects there. Now do the same with the other half. (If your sieve is really big, you might be able to do this all in one go.) This takes quite a bit of elbow grease, but it’s worth it as removing the seeds gives the semifreddo a much lovelier texture. Measure out 300 ml of the strained purée, reserving the remainder.

Using a hand-held electric beater, beat the egg whites in a large heatproof bowl (stainless steel is ideal) until they’re just fluffy, then beat in ¼ cup (55 g) of the sugar, a little at a time, beating well between each addition.

Put the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and continue to beat the whites, adding the remaining sugar a little at a time. (Just watch the cord of the electric beater near the cook-top.) Keep beating until the mixture is thick and fluffy and the sugar has dissolved, about 6 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat.

Stand the bowl in a larger bowl filled with plenty of ice and continue to beat the mixture until it’s cool. Whisk in the 300 ml of raspberry purée. Once that’s well combined, fold in the whipped cream.

Scrape the mixture into a freezer container, splotching a little of the reserved purée here and there as you go. When all the mixture is in, swirl a knife blade through it a couple of times to give the semifreddo a berry ripple. Cover the container and freeze overnight.

Add a little extra caster sugar to any remaining berry purée to make a topping and chill it.

To serve the semifreddo, scoop it into chilled bowls or ice-cream glasses. Serve with summer fruits and the topping.