Method

• 1.
  Set aside half the strawberries, choosing medium and similar-sized fruit (these will be your heart-shaped strawberries, for decoration; see recipe notes).
• 2.
  Hull and roughly chop remaining strawberries. Place in a medium saucepan with the sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Cook, stirring, over high heat until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook for 6-8 minutes, until a chunky, slightly thickened puree. Set aside to cool, then chill until cold.
• 3.
  For the limoncello syrup, combine sugar and 300ml water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and stir in the limoncello. Set aside to cool.
• 4.
  For the mascarpone layer, whisk the yolks and half the sugar in a large bowl until pale and tripled in volume and the sugar has dissolved. Gently stir in the mascarpone until combined.
• 5.
  In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of fine salt and the remaining 50g sugar until soft peaks form. Using a large spoon, fold half the egg whites into the yolk mixture. Continue gently stirring in the remaining egg whites, being careful not to knock out all the air. If not using immediately, cover and keep in the fridge until needed.
• 6.
  To assemble, dip half the biscuits, one at a time, in the cooled limoncello syrup and arrange in a single layer in a 30cm x 7cm-deep oval baking dish, breaking biscuits to fit. Spoon over half the mascarpone mixture and level surface with a spatula. Drizzle over the cold strawberry puree. Arrange a second layer of biscuits, dipping one at a time in the syrup (just lay the biscuit over the puree without pressing in). Cover with remaining mascarpone mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
• 7.
  Close to serving, sprinkle top with crushed freeze-dried strawberries. Hull the reserved strawberries by making a ‘V’ cut in the top, then halve strawberries at a right-angle across the ‘V’ so that each half strawberry resembles a love heart.
• 8.
  Arrange strawberries on top of tiramisu, alternating cut-side up and cut-side down in neat rows.