{"id":16858,"date":"2013-04-02T04:34:44","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T02:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.laragazzacolmattarello.com\/grandmothers-cake-with-almonds\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T19:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T17:03:06","slug":"grandmothers-cake-with-almonds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laragazzacolmattarello.com\/en\/grandmothers-cake-with-almonds\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandmother’s cake with almonds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The day before yesterday was the day of the “Pesce d’Aprile<\/a>“, 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

\"Grandmother's<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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<\/a>. 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>. 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<\/a> and a beloved character in Rome. One of the most famous restaurants in the city is precisely Sora Lella<\/i>, 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 \u00e8 la morte sua!”<\/em><\/p>\n

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The latest video recipes from my channel!<\/h3>\n\n
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\n \n Pasta fr\u00eda con #salm\u00f3n \ud83c\udf5d La #ENSALADA de #pasta m\u00e1s #FRESCA y #SABROSA del #verano \ud83e\udd52\ud83c\udf4b #recetafacil<\/span>\n \"Grandmother's\n <\/span>\n <\/a>\n
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\n Pasta fr\u00eda con #salm\u00f3n \ud83c\udf5d La #ENSALADA de #pasta m\u00e1s #FRESCA y #SABROSA del #verano \ud83e\udd52\ud83c\udf4b #recetafacil<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
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\n El #bocadillo m\u00e1s #barato de #Roma \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 Dos por menos de 2 \u20ac (y el agua, gratis) \ud83d\udca7#allanostra<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
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\n #Pollo con #pimientos a la #romana \ud83c\udf36\ufe0f El #guiso italiano del #verano (mejor al d\u00eda siguiente) \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
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