Chop the strawberries into small pieces and put them in a bowl with a tablespoon of caster sugar, lemon juice and a light grinding of black pepper. Toss and allow to macerate while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

Break the eggs into a bowl that will be suitable to go over a pot of boiling water. Add the sugar and vanilla. Place the bowl over the simmering water but do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Whisk for 6 – 8 minutes until the mixture doubles in volume thicken and becomes pale and fluffy. Set aside to cool slightly.

Whip the cream until the soft peak stage.

Add the macerated strawberries to the egg mixture and fold through. Crush the fruit a little with a potato masher if you want to release more of a pink colour. Add the meringues and fold through lightly.

Finally, add the whipped cream and very lightly fold this through to combine. Decant into a metal tin and freeze until it sets (overnight). * pre-freezing the metal tin helps the semifreddo freeze more quickly.

Once frozen scoop out and serve with a few extra sliced strawberries and crumbled meringue (optional).