The Perfect Summer Dessert: Lemon Sorbet with Raspberries, Amaretto & Sour Cream

Last Sunday I made what I think may be the perfect summer dessert: cool, easy, extraordinarily fresh and flavorful and fairly light.

Here's what is needed for one serving:

- Lemon sorbet
- Raspberries, appx 1/4 cup
- 1 small dollop of sour cream
- 1 T amaretto

I tried to drizzle the Amaretto onto the raspberries which had rolled onto the side, to get the raspberry-frangipane flavor I love.

There are two keys to this dessert. The first is getting high quality lemon sorbet that has the proper texture. Some sorbets (all that I found at Whole Foods) have a horrible, icy texture. I use "Whole Fruit" sorbets, which I find at Shaw's Market here in Boston. The other key is the sour cream. Don't substitute whipped cream. The sour cream pulls the entire dessert together and adds richness to give you that hint of decadence so necessary to properly enjoying dessert.

I tried to think of ways to improve this, thinking of pastries, tarts, custards or panna cottas, and I honestly couldn't think of anything that I could possibly have liked more. Perhaps a lemon buttermilk panna cotta with an amaretto creme anglaise and raspberries, but then you lose the tangy richness of the sour cream.

We served after serving marinated steak with chimicurri sauce and tomato-leek quinoa. This is a very nice grouping, because the steak is heavy, but the salad and the dessert are both light and flavorful. I make no changes to the salad save omitting the green onions (only because I always forget them) and substituting red tomatoes.