Guest Recipe - Nonna's Pavlova

When I was younger my Mum (or Nonna, as she's affectionately known to the kids) used to ask me what I wanted for my birthday meal. Every year, it was always the same answer. Prawn Cocktail, Coronation Chicken and PAVLOVA.

I was classy for sure.

My Mum makes the best pavlovas though. There I said it.

Every year on my birthday I looked forward to that creamy, sweet, crunchy, chewy, bowl full of pavlova goodness. It's one of the highlights of the birthdays of my past.

Time goes on though, and despite loving them I rarely make a pavlova...in fact this one was only my second attempt!

It came out well, though I've noted a few things to improve it next time. I got a bit scared of over-whisking and the egg white collapsing, so I don't think I whisked enough. I did do the 'tipping the bowl over' tip (see below) though which worked, so it couldn't have been that loose!

I topped the pavlova with fresh fruit such as strawberries, nectarine, pineapple and kiwi. My Mum always put passion fruit on the top as well (which is my favourite flavour) which gives a lovely acidity to cut through the cream. However, I couldn't find any ripe ones, so I left them out for now. The nectarine and pineapple had good levels of acidity, so it was all good.

Needless to say, everyone enjoyed it!

Nonna's recipe is very simple, and doesn't include cornflour (which a lot of more recent recipes do). She said adding that seemed pointless, so I stuck with the original recipe.

Perfect for a crowd-pleasing dessert for a summer party now lockdown is over, and an extra special treat.

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