The Italian Cook Book Part 21

Half a pound granulated sugar.

1/4 lb. sweet almonds, whole and sh.e.l.led, mixed to a few pine-seeds.

A piece of b.u.t.ter, one and a half ounce.

A pinch of anise-seeds.

Five eggs.

A pinch of salt.

Leave back the almonds and pine-seeds to add them afterward, and mix everything with four eggs, so as to use the fifth if it is necessary to make a soft dough. Divide into four cakes half an inch thick and as large as a hand, place them in a receptacle greased with b.u.t.ter and sprinkled with flour. Glaze the cakes with yolk of eggs. Bake in the oven, but only as much as will still permit cutting the cakes into slices, which you will do the day after, as the crust will then be softened. Put the slices back in the oven, so that they will be toasted on both sides and you will have the crisp biscuits.

184

SOFT BISCUITS

(Biscotti teneri)

For these biscuits it would be necessary to have a tin box about four inches wide and a little less long than the oven used. In this way the biscuits will have a corner on both sides and, if cut a little more than half an inch, they will be of the right proportion. The ingredients needed are:

Flour, about two ounces.

Potato meal, a little less.

Sugar, four ounces (1/4 lb.) Sweet almonds 1-1/2 ounce.

Candied orange or angelica, one ounce.

Fruit preserve, one ounce.

Three eggs.

Skin the almonds, cut them in half lengthwise and dry in the sun or at the fire. Pastry cooks usually leave them with the skin but it is much preferable to skin them. Cut in little cubes the candied fruits and the preserve.

Stir for a long while, about half an hour the sugar in the egg-yolks and a little flour then add the white of the eggs well beaten and when every thing is well beaten add the flour, letting it fall from a sieve. Mix slowly and scatter on the mixing the almonds and the cubes of candied and preserved fruit. Grease and sprinkle the tin box with flour. Bake in the oven and cut the biscuits the day after. If desired these can also be roasted on both sides.

185

BISCUITS SULTAN

(Biscotto alla sultana)

Granulated sugar, six ounces.

Flour, four ounces.

Potato meal, two ounces.

Currants, three ounces.

Candied fruits, one ounce.

Five eggs.

A taste of lemon peel.

Two tablespoonfuls of brandy.

Put first on the fire the currants and the candied fruits cut in very little cubes with as much brandy or cognac as is necessary to cover them: when it boils, light the brandy and let it burn out of the fire until the liquor is all consumed: then remove the currants and candy and let them dry in a folded napkin. Then stir for half an hour the sugar with the egg-yolks and the taste of lemon peel. Beat well the white of the eggs and pour them on the sugar and yolks. Add the flour and potato meal letting them fall from a sieve and stir slowly until everything is well mixed together. Add the currants and the pieces of candied fruits and pour the mixing in a smooth mold or in a high and round cake-dish.

Grease the mold or the dish with b.u.t.ter and sprinkle with powdered sugar or flour. Put at once in the oven to avoid that the currants and the candied fruits fall in the oven.

186

MARGHERITA CAKE

(Pasta Margherita)

Potato meal, three ounces.

Sugar, six ounces.

Four eggs.

Lemon juice.

Beat well the egg-yolks with the sugar, add the potato meal and the lemon juice and stir everything for half an hour. Finally beat well the whites, and mix the rest, stirring continually but slowly. Pour the mixture in a smooth and round mold, greased with b.u.t.ter and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Put at once in the oven.

Remove from the mold when cold and dust with powdered sugar and vanilla.

187

MANTUA TART

(Torta Mantovana)

Flour, six ounces.

Sugar, six ounces.

b.u.t.ter, five ounces.

Sweet almonds and pine-seeds, two ounces.

One whole egg.

Four egg-yolks.

A taste of lemon peel.

First work well with a ladle the eggs with the sugar, then pour the flour little by little, still stirring, and finally the b.u.t.ter, previously melted in a double steamer (bain-marie). Put the mixture in a pie-dish greased with b.u.t.ter and sprinkled with flour or bread crumbs ground. On top put the almonds and the pine-seeds. Cut the latter in half and cut the almonds, previously skinned in warm water, each in eight or ten pieces. This tart must not be thicker than one inch, so that it can dry well in the oven, which must not be too hot.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve cold.

188

CURLY TART

(Torta ricciolina)

Sweet almonds with a few bitter ones, four ounces, Granulated sugar, six ounces, Candied fruits or angelica, 2-1/2 ounces, b.u.t.ter, two ounces, Lemon peel.

Mix two eggs with flour, flatten the paste to a thin sheet on a bread board and cut into thin noodles. In a corner of the bread board make a heap of the almonds with the sugar, the candied fruit cut in pieces and the grated lemon peel. All this cut and crush so as to reduce the mixture in little pieces. Then take a pie-dish and without greasing it, spread a layer of noodles on the bottom, then pour part of the mixture, then another layer of noodles and continue until there remains no more material, trying to have the tart at least one inch thick. When it is so prepared cover with the melted b.u.t.ter, using a brush to apply it evenly.

189

ALMOND CAKE

(Bocca di dama)