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Zabaglione (zäbəlˈyōnē) or in Doug speak Za-ba-Yon-eh
A noun.
An Italian dessert made of whipped and heated egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala wine, served hot or cold.


What is your zabaglione face?

The recipe first.

Take:
A dozen friends
A dozen egg yolks
2 cups or more of sugar
A cup of Marsala wine (to begin with)

Add all ingredients (except for the 12 friends) in a metal pan with handles.
Begin to stir briskly with a fork! You want to aerate the mixture for 30 minutes before serving.

(You are not allowed to use a mixer or any mechanical device: This is a labor of love, and one that does not permitted short cuts.)

This recipe is handed down from generation to generation and has not changed since the beginning of recorded time. (As far as I can tell.)

If you have ever tried to hand aerate anything, you know it requires a lot of strength and patience. You arm will soon cramp. This is where the 12 friends come in. The bowl is passed around the table as you continue to carry on your after-dinner conversation. If you happen to be Italian, you have a Zabaglione FACE, each person's expression and approach to the stirring stirringly different.

I watch each of my friends take the pan and continue the whisking.

Some stand up and hold it below their chests, talking to it like a child, calming the mixture down by “shhhhhh…shhhhhhhhh”ing it, speaking to it like it is a person.

Others almost absentmindedly set it in their lap and continue carrying on a conversation all the time they are whisking, yet never spilling a drop.

Some people fall into a blissful trace, almost as if connecting to God. They are in such a Zen Place of being that you almost feel like you're watching the most private of acts.

This is all done with care and love, and nobody refuses to help create this 3-ingredient nectar of the Gods. It is not that the Gods have chosen the 3 most amazing ingredients that make this the ultimate finish to any meal. (And BELIEVE ME it is in all of my 46 years the most INCREDIBLE thing I have ever tasted.)

It is incredible because each person present has added his or her own personal energy to these basic goods. It is this extra added something that you cannot see or buy anywhere that makes the -- in “Doug Speak” -- Za-Ba-Yon-Eh.

Simply the greatest after-dinner finish I have ever in my life had the simple honor of not only tasting but also helping to make.