Finish your dinner party in style with this delicious and impressive dessert. It’s retro but is still as good now as it was all those years ago.

Ingredients serves 6-8

Meringue

5 x egg whites

270g caster sugar

Lemon Cream

(Setting time around 2 hours)

105g lemon juice

2 x lemon zest

140g sugar

3 x whole eggs

1 x gelatine sheet, softened in water

225g butter

150g pistachio nuts, shelled and roughly chopped

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200c/Gas mark 6

First make the lemon cream. Place the lemon juice, zest, sugar and eggs into a large bowl. Whisk all together then place this bowl over a simmering pan of water.

Keep whisking occasionally until the mixture begins to thicken. Once thickened add the softened gelatine sheet and whisk in the butter. Pass this through a sieve into a tray and allow to cool and set in the fridge.

For the meringue, place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl. With an electric whisk or mixer gradually start to whisk until the eggs start to foam and stiffen up. Add the sugar slowly until stiff peaks are formed.

Grease and line a large Swiss roll tin with greaseproof paper and spread the mixture evenly over the base of the tin. Bake in the over at 200c for 8 minutes then lower the temperature to 160c for around 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and turn out on to a sheet of greaseproof paper and allow to cool slightly for around 10 minutes.

Lightly beat up the lemon cream mixture and spread over the meringue. Scatter over a generous helping of the pistachios. Gently roll up the meringue from the shorter end until a full roll has formed. To make it easier you can score lines on each turn of the roll. Serve with whipped cream and extra pistachios.

Mary Contini is a writer and director of Valvona & Crolla

www.valvonacrolla.com delivering daily to your door.