Something from home - Lemon Cheesecake

Yesterday it was my turn to cook. "Tu puoi cucinare Cheesecake?" came the question from Caterina... (can I cook cheesecake?) "Ci!" I responded vehemently, wanting to impress. As soon as the affirmation had escaped my lips, a disastrous cheesecake memory came to mind. The only time I had ever made cheesecake myself, I had forgotten the eggs and the whole thing had sunk into one fatty mess in the oven. Not something I wanted to repeat when serving eager hosts. After a few minutes pondering, I decided to play it a little safe with a no-cook cheesecake. At home I'd probably use half cream cheese, half mascarpone but, having seen Caterina tucking into Mascarpone at all times of the day, I thought I might as well go with 100% to have the highest chance of pleasing my Italian hosts.

Sicilian lemons are available at our local green grocers at the moment, so lemon cheesecake seemed the obvious choice. The problem I had though was the biscuits. Digestives are an absolute must when we make this at home, but these were only available in tiny quantities here, and at extortionate prices. Consequently I had to go for the closest possible Italian version... and, to me, it definitely wasn't the same. In my opinion, digestives work particularly well because they are not very sweet and instead they are a little bit salty, providing the perfect contrast to the sweet and creamy topping. The Italian equivalent had that 'supermarket continental biscuit' taste that I can't quite put my finger on, but I find it in all supermarket biscuits over here. It's a sort of fake vanilla taste combined with an over-sweetness and an almost banana-like aftertaste... and not hint of saltiness. This description is far from precise, but it hopefully gives you an idea of why these biscuits don't work as well. On the flip side, this taste is probably very familiar to Italians, just as digestives are to the English, so it may have been the best option for them. I for one was not convinced, the topping was citrusy and delicious, but I just couldn't deal with the biscuits... so I would definitely splash out on the digestives next time!

Biscuit base
300g digestive biscuits
100g butter, melted

Topping
700g mascarpone
220g caster sugar
2 large lemons (or 3 small), zest and juice

• Crush the biscuits and combine with the melted butter.
• Pour into your chosen dish (depending on how deep you want your layers) - I used one which was about 25 by 25cm, enabling me to push the biscuit mixture up the sides and create an edge.
• Chill this in the fridge whilst you make the topping.
• The topping couldn't be simpler - just stir everything together. Don't over-stir though as the mix could split.
• Pour the topping onto the biscuit base and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.