The day before yesterday was the day of the “Pesce d’Aprile“, the Italian April Fool’s Day, a day people take advantage of to play various little pranks on their neighbors, the most notable being sticking paper fish on people’s backs without them noticing. It would be like our Holy Innocents’ Day, but instead of December 28th, it’s the first day of April. I wanted to prepare some kind of sweet that had a connection to “Pesce d’Aprile,” but apart from fish-shaped cookies, there don’t seem to be any major culinary specialties for this day, or at least not in Rome. So, I finally decided to sweeten our last day of the Easter mini-vacation with a torta della Nonna, which I like much more than any cookie and had been wanting to post on the blog for days. I saw the recipe here. It is perhaps the most famous recipe website in Italy. In general, they explain things very well, but in my opinion, they have two small problems. 1.- Trying to use the same explanation for some dough, cream, etc., for different recipes that contain them, they get a bit confused. 2.- Sometimes they follow one procedure in the video and another in the written recipe below. If you are used to cooking, no problem, you find a way to figure it out without almost noticing these small inaccuracies, but if that’s not the case, they cause moments of confusion. Anyway, if you know Italian, I recommend it, because as for the rest, everything is very well thought out.
The most famous version regarding the origin of this cake says that it was invented by a cook named Guido Samorini, in his restaurant in Florence, tired of hearing customers ask him to introduce some new dessert to the menu. Although I have also read that there are those who say that it is a cake born in the Emilia Romagna region and others who claim that, in reality, it is traditional to Liguria. It reminds me a lot of Basque cake. Especially the version I prepared, replacing the pine nuts of the original torta della Nonna recipe with almonds, which I like more and are much cheaper.
By the way, I don’t know if you know that Nonna means grandmother in Italian. Personally, when I hear the word “Nonna,” the first image that comes to my mind is Sora Lella acting as a grandmother in the movies she made with Carlo Verdone. Although they are not, let’s say, masterpieces of cinema, far from it, they are worth watching, if only for the moments when Sora Lella appears, with her charm and her Romanesco way of speaking. They force you to become an unconditional fan and regret not having been able to meet her in person, even if it was just so she could scold you mercilessly. A bit like what happened with our Rafaela Aparicio. Sora Lella’s name was Elena Fabrizi and she was the sister of the mega-hyper-genius Aldo Fabrizi. Apart from being the most legendary Roman nonna of 80s Italian cinema, she was also a well-known cook and a beloved character in Rome. One of the most famous restaurants in the city is precisely Sora Lella, on Tiber Island, which she managed herself and is now run by her family. I have never been and I don’t know if I want to, because although it must be delicious, I feel like I would be disappointed, as usually happens with great expectations surrounding something idealized to exaggerated extremes. I don’t know if Sora Lella ever made a torta della Nonna, but boy, wouldn’t it have been authentic to see the liveliest nonna in Italy bringing a torta della nonna to the table saying: “Questa torta con le mandorle è la morte sua!”
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The card
- For the dough:
- 400 g pastry flour
- 150 g powdered sugar
- 1 sachet of vanilla (0.5 g)
- 1 pinch of salt
- 4 egg yolks
- 200 g butter
- For the cream:
- 1 l milk
- 1 vanilla bean
- 8 egg yolks
- 80 g flour
- 250 g sugar
- Grated zest of half a lemon
- Cream preparation:
- Heat 750 ml of milk with the vanilla bean, which must first be cut lengthwise, from top to bottom.
- Turn off the heat when the milk is about to start boiling and let it cool.
- Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and the grated zest of half a lemon, until they form a light and fluffy cream.
- When they are well combined, gradually add the sifted flour, stirring constantly. Add the milk that we had not boiled, stirring constantly.
- Remove the vanilla bean from the milk and add the egg mixture.
- Heat the cream over very low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, so that lumps do not form, until it is very thick.
- Let it cool in a flat container in the fridge, completely covered with plastic wrap, so that a crust does not form.
- Dough preparation:
- Knead the flour, the butter cut into small pieces (fresh out of the fridge), and a pinch of salt until you get a sandy consistency dough. (If you can do it with a food processor or a chopper, better)
- Place the dough on the marble, and make a hole in the middle, into which you add the eggs, vanilla, and sugar, and knead it quickly until it is compact.
- Form a ball with the dough, wrap it with plastic wrap, and leave it in the fridge for at least an hour.
- Remove the dough from the fridge, take it out of the plastic, and divide it as follows: Two-thirds of the dough for the base of the cake; one-third for the lid of the cake.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Roll out the dough for the base with a rolling pin.
- Grease the mold with butter and flour. Place the dough inside, cutting off what hangs over the mold, and prick the surface a little with the tip of a fork.
- Fill the cake with the cream.
- Roll out the dough for the lid with the rolling pin.
- Place it over the cream and also distribute a few pricks on the surface, made with the tip of a fork.
- Join the contour of the base with that of the lid, pressing around the edge of the cake with the fork.
- Distribute the sliced almonds over the top of the cake.
- Bake for 45 minutes.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar when it has cooled down.
- Leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving.
