Romeu e Julieta

In the 1970’s Mauricio de Sousa, the most successful Brazilian cartoonist responsible for "Turma da Monica" was hired to create a publicity campaign for "Goiabada da CICA." Goiabada is a sweet guava paste that is popular in Brazil. The campaign featured the pairing of the very sweet goiabada with a salty fresh cheese. Mauricio’s idea was to call the sweet Goiabada "Julieta" and the salty cheese "Romeu". The dessert "Romeu e Julieta" was popularized and is still know by this name all over Brazil. Here we work on a reinterpretation from the glitztv website ¹ based on marcarpone cheese.

Ingredients:

 

• 200 grams of goiabada
• 200 ml of water
• 200 grams of mascarpone cheese
• 200 grams of heavy cream
• 1 large pinch of salt
• toasted almond slivers for decoration

Procedure:

 

1. Preparing the goiabada
   • Cut the goiabada in small cubes and put in a medium size heavy-bottom saucepan.
   • Add 200 ml of water.
   • Cook over slow heat stirring from time to time until you obtain a thick sirupy and homogeneous paste.
   • Let it cool to room temperature.
2. Toast the slivered almonds
   • Toast the slivered almonds in a 300 F oven watching frequently so that they turn a golden colour but do not become bitter.
3. Prepare the mousse
   • Put the mascarpone cheese, the heavy cream, and the salt in the bowl of a standing mixer.
   • Mix to a mousse consistency.
   • Taste for salt, the cheese mousse should be lightly salty to contrast with the sweet goiabada.
4. Serve
   • Serve in martini glasses with the goiabada in the bottom of the grass and a large spoon of the mousse floating on it.
   • Decorate with the toasted slivered almonds.