Recipes list
Lombardy is the richest of all the regions of Italy. It accounts for a third of all Italian exports, but it is not all a smoky industrial monster. Industries are studded around the most luxuriant and fertile of countrysides. The basin of the river Po is an immense flat plain with pale green fields alternating with wheat, maize and rice fields, divided by rivers and canals; fringed to the north by a succession of the most beautiful lakes in Italy (Maggiore, Lugano, Como and Garda) and by the foothills of the Alps, which rise to high snow-crested peaks. Woods scramble over hills, bell towers spring out from behind trees, a hazy mist gives an air of nostalgic melancholy. Towns with historic names, and palaces, castles and medieval streets carry you into the heart of the Renaissance.
Lombardy was already well advanced in agriculture by the fifteenth century. It was ruled by noble families who owned the land; first by the Viscontis and later the Sforzas, who were the richest and most powerful signorie in the peninsula (there were also the Gonzagas in Mantua and the Estes). By draining the marshes and irrigating the fields, they made Lombardy the most productive region in the world at the time. They grew wheat and maize and introduced the cultivation of rice; they bred cattle and made cheese. At that time Italy was the centre of Europe. Italian could be heard in the kitchens of the European courts, and the banquets of noble families were complex spectacles of gastronomic architecture and choreography.
The eighteenth century saw a growing movement of capital towards the countryside. Merchants and the nobility built villas and gardens and began to invest in large-scale agriculture. Large farm settlements and capitalist methods of production appeared, and the old feudal order fused into semi-feudal systems such as the mezzadria, in which tenant agricultural families gave half their produce to landowners. This was when the cuisine of Lombardy took shape, combining the rustic cooking of the hungry mezzadro, who remained personally and economically dependent and locked in a cycle of subsistence, with a kind of cosmopolitan haute cuisine that retained elements of the old tradition of the court and was practised by a middle class passionate about the pleasures of the table.
The court cuisine had been in the great Italian Renaissance tradition codified by Bartolomeo Sacchi of Piadena (known as Platina) in his De honesta voluptate e valetudine (1457), the first cookery book to be published in Italy, in which most of the recipes came from Mastro Martino, a cook from Como who worked for the Patriarch of Aquileia. In almost every restaurant I went to where they served regional dishes, chefs brought out facsimiles of books written by men who cooked at the courts, from which they picked ideas for their menus. The most commonly used is L’ Arte di ben cucinare, published in 1662 by Bartolomeo Stefani, a Bolognese who was chef at the Gonzaga court in Mantua. But the chefs also gave me lyrical accounts of the poor food of the old peasantry; of the offal (tripe, heads, tails, feet, lungs) and cured meats and sausages they ate only a few times a year; of the one-pot piatto unico in which the poor combined meat and vegetables; of the pheasants and partridges and birds they caught (illegally, as they belonged to the landlords); of the eel and trout of the lakes, the chestnuts gathered in the mountains, the wild strawberries with their extraordinary perfume; and the mushrooms and truffles they found in the woodland.
It is impossible to speak in general of the cooking of Lombardy because, apart from these rich and poor traditions, and differences in the cooking of the plain, lakes, hills and mountains, each town is different and does not know the dishes of the next. It is, more than in any other region of Italy, a real mosaic. Bergamo, once part of the Serenissima, is still more Venetian; Mantua, which was the seat of the Gonzagas and has refined aristocratic cooking traditions, is more like Emilia to the south; the Valtellina has the resources of the mountains, including game. But they do have things in common: they use enormous quantities of butter, lard and cream, and all the cuisines are based on risotto, polenta and soups.
Lombardy is the region that grows and consumes the most rice. Cultivation of the grain expanded throughout the plain in the sixteenth century, but not without difficulties; it was blamed for the malaria which prevails in watery areas, and fields were constantly destroyed by edict. Before it was mechanised, rice-picking was the work of women, the mondine, who spent their days wading in the marshy waters, their dresses stuffed into their drawers. The rice is short-grain and there are many varieties: the round Originario and Padano, which fall apart and stick together quickly, are preferred for soups and for stuffing vegetables. Of the rice used for risotto the most prized are Carnaroli, Vialone Nano, Razza 77 and the famous Arborio, which retain a certain firmness and bite. In the past, rice was the food of the urban rich; and even now, in some parts, risotto is a wedding dish, and Sunday is not Sunday without it. As in the Veneto, almost every ingredient you can think of – vegetable, fish and meat – is made into a risotto. But here the risotto is dry (asciutto), not almost liquid as in Venice. Risotto alla milanese, made with saffron and also called risotto giallo, or yellow risotto, is the most famous. Risotto alla certosina, a speciality of Pavia, which takes its name from the Carthusian monks who were not allowed to eat meat and so devised many rice dishes using the freshwater fish, crayfish and frogs they farmed in great pits near the abbeys, is one of the most delightful. Rice is cooked in broth and sometimes also in wine, with plenty of butter and sometimes cream. Polenta was the food of the rural poor. Before maize arrived, peasants made it with wheat, barley, oats, millet and buckwheat. Maize flour polenta was introduced relatively late, but by the beginning of the eighteenth century, maize cultivation was widespread in Lombardy, and polenta was the staple food. It remained that way until the 1930s, and many rural workers in the area ate little else.
In Lombardy polenta is made in many ways: with water, with milk, and mixed with other grains including buckwheat and black flour (fraina). It is served as it is, a sort of porridge, or allowed to cool and then sliced and fried or grilled. Polenta can be mixed with butter, cheese, tomatoes or pork fat, and can be served with beans and other vegetables (in Rogaro, a village near Lake Como, it is served with asparagus) or with sausages and stews of all kinds, including some made with game, pork and veal. Bergamo is said to make the best: its speciality is polenta e osei, for which a mound of polenta is topped with small roasted birds threaded on skewers. Pasta has largely taken the place of both rice and polenta, because they take so long to make and must be stirred constantly. But polenta – once called stramaledetta (the cursed) and il cibo della miseria (the food of poverty) – is still an important part of mountain cooking, and it has now become fashionable, presented in elegant portions and crisp little grilled rectangles.
The third staple food to be found throughout Lombardy are the minestre, rich soups of peasant origin made with dried beans, rice or pasta (sometimes all three) and vegetables, and sometimes including bacon or sliced sausage – a little lard or pork rind gives them the old country flavour. Minestre di riso are based on rice, and there are versions with vegetables such as turnips, leeks and cabbage, with fish and also with sausages and chicken livers. Many soups include fried or toasted bread, which goes at the bottom of the bowl.
Lombardy is the most important livestock and milk-producing region in Italy, although you never see the cows because they never leave the sheds. Their milk is used to make every kind of cheese, including those traditional to the south, but the region has its own cheese repertoire: bitto comes from the Valtellina and Val Gerola near Morbegno; bransi, from the Val Brembana; hard, semi-matured bagoss, which has a powerful flavour and aroma, is made in the mountains of the Val Caffaro near Bagolino; furmai maioch is from the Val Chiavenna; formagella is from Brescia; and scimud is made in Valmalenco. Other cottage-industry cheeses are caprini, certosa, straness and quartirolo, crescenza, uso monte, zincherlino, fiorett and cupeta. Four great cheeses, stracchino, robiola, runny taleggio and tartufelle, are matured in caves in the Valsassina. Creamy mascarpone is eaten as a sweet. There is gorgonzola and Bel Paese. The hard and sharp grana padano, made into huge wheels and aged between ten months and two years, is used like parmesan for grating.
There is plenty of meat throughout Lombardy. Veal, pork, chicken, rabbit, even lamb and their offal go into making the bolliti misti (boiled meats), arrosti (roasts), stracotti (stews) and fritti misti (breaded and fried bites) that are characteristic of the land along the valley of the Po.
Lombardy is pig country, and the areas of Brianza and Cremona are famous for their sausages. They manufacture specialities from other regions, but their own are the fine-cut pork and beef salame di Milano; bastardei, also with pork and beef; coarse-cut pure pork salamella di Cremona; and varzi, which is pork flavoured with salt, pepper, garlic and wine. Luganega needs to be fried or grilled; mortadella di fegato, made with liver, and sanguinaccio, black pudding, are cooked and eaten hot. Bresaola is air-dried spiced beef. Red culatello and fiocchetto are salted and spiced lean hams in sausage casings which are matured for up to a year. Other meats are used: in the Lomellina, where geese are reared, there is goose salami and goose liver pâté, while violin is cured goat’s meat. It is no wonder that the favourite antipasto of the region is a selection of cured meats and salami served with pickles.
Lombardy is not vegetable country, but there are a few: the potatoes, which are very good, came in Napoleon’s time, were grown by priests and moved up from the peasants’ kitchens to the grand tables; cabbages, once kept buried during the winter in pits lined with maize stalks; turnips, beans and asparagus, which grow between the vines; very sweet peppers and a delicious variety of yellow pumpkin. In the hills apples and pears, apricots and peaches, strawberries and raspberries are grown; in the mountains, chestnuts, white truffles and many different kinds of wild mushrooms including porcini, ovoli (Caesar’s mushrooms), gallinacci (chanterelles), and prataioli, are found.
Fish from the lakes – eel, trout, sturgeon as well as humbler perch, carp and whitefish – are treated simply, mostly grilled or poached. Shad is salted and dried in the sun and becomes missoltitt which can be grilled.
Two centuries of Spanish rule, which began in 1535 when Charles V made his son Philip Duke of Milan, brought saffron and rice-growing to the Po Valley and dishes such as risotto and cassoeula – a stew made with sausages and pig’s trotters, ears and ribs that derives its name from the Spanish clay pot in which it is made. The other main foreign influence is Germanic, and it is evident in the heavy dishes of meat and cabbage, the schnitzel-like costoletta milanese and the range of panettone and other brioche-type cakes. It comes not from the Teutonic Longobards who ruled Lombardy for two hundred years and gave the region its name, but from the Austrians who took over from the Spanish in 1713 at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. Austria also introduced a land tax in 1760 that encouraged small landowners and led to a fairer division of wealth and agriculture. There is a French connection in Lombardy, mainly through Turin and the House of Savoy.
Lombardy’s chief city, Milan, which has led the country into industrialisation and modernisation, is a European city in the centre of Europe and it has lost its culinary traditions almost entirely. No one in Milan wants to cook Milanese dishes (which survive in the Bassa, south of Milan). The Milanese say they have no time for lengthy cooking and prefer the healthier Mediterranean diet of southern Italy. After the war they ate steak and salad. Now many have become hardened eaters of sandwiches and pizza. Milan is a world of fast foods, of sandwich bars, hamburger stands and pizzerias (in 1956 there were six, now there are five hundred), but it is also the city where you can eat the best food – at Tuscan, Apulian and other regional trattorias, as well as at restaurants that serve international cuisine and cucina creativa. And Peck, perhaps the greatest food shop in Europe, is here.
The mountains and lakes of Lombardy are now resorts for city people. The harsh life of villagers has gone and, with the sub-alpine civilisation practically dead, traditional variety is hard to find. But around Cremona and Mantua and in other centres of the more leisurely life lost long ago in Milan, people are still attached to the good things of the past.
The leading wine area of Lombardy is Oltrepò Pavese where much of the wine production consists of sparkling wines – slightly sweet, semi-sparkling reds and some magnificent sparkling whites made by the champagne method.
In the Valtellina valley Nebbiolo grapes, like those used for Barolo in Piedmont, are used with other native grapes to make hearty reds. Valtellina Superiore are similar to their Piedmontese cousins. Sforzato is an extraordinarily full highly alcoholic Valtellina wine made from grapes which have shrivelled in the sun. Other gems of the region are the red Riviera del Garda Bresciano Rosso, pink Chiaretto and Botticino; the white Tocai di San Martino della Battaglia and white Lugana; and the hugely popular Franciacorta reds, whites and brilliant champagne-method bubblies.
They are both great!
For crostini di grana con la crema beat 150ml double cream with 60g grated grana padano or parmesan until stiff, adding salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Serve on crostini.
For crostini di gorgonzola dolce con le noci (with walnuts) mash 100g gorgonzola dolce cheese with 1 tablespoon of milk and mix in 8 coarsely chopped walnut halves. A refinement is to top them with 100g black or white grapes sautéed in 1½ tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat for 15–20 minutes.
BROTH WITH POACHED EGGS
[ zuppa pavese ]
This soup born in Padua was common in restaurants all over Italy in the days when I travelled there every year from Egypt with my family. And when I was an art student at St Martins in the 1950s, all the Soho coffee bars had it on the menu.
SERVES 2
500ml good chicken or meat stock
large slices of crusty bread or 4 from a baguette
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons grated parmesan, or more
Bring the stock to the boil in a pan and toast the bread so that it is only slightly browned.
Put 2 slices of toast in each soup plate. Carefully break the eggs over the gently simmering broth so that the yolks remain whole. Poach over low heat for seconds only until the whites become opaque and the yolks are still runny. Ladle the eggs with the broth very carefully over the toast, putting two eggs into each plate, and sprinkle with parmesan.
[ zuppa di zucca con le mandorle ]
On the road between Mantua and Cremona was a huge stall selling pumpkins of every size, shape and colour. Pumpkins have always prospered in the plain around those two cities and they have always been exceptionally sweet and yellow. The success of this soup depends on the flavour of the pumpkin. Nowadays in the UK many of us use squash as an alternative to pumpkin and it will do, but you might need to add 1 teaspoon of sugar if it is not sweet enough.
SERVES 4
500g pumpkin, peeled, seeded and diced
900ml milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
300ml single cream
4 tablespoons chopped toasted blanched almonds
Put the pumpkin in a saucepan with the milk, and add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender. Blend to a cream with a hand blender straight into the pan or in a food processor and pour back into the saucepan. Stir in the cream, heat through, and serve, sprinkling each serving with the toasted almonds.
PUMPKIN RISOTTO
[ risotto con la zucca ]
SERVES 4
1 onion, chopped
600g peeled pumpkin or butternut squash cut into 2 cm cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
250ml whole milk
1 litre light chicken stock (you may use 1½ stock cubes)
350g risotto rice
50g unsalted butter
Grated parmesan
Fry the onion in the oil until soft, add the pumpkin, season with salt and pepper and cover with milk. Simmer gently for 5–15 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.
Bring the stock to the boil in a large saucepan, add the rice and let simmer gently for 18 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding salt, pepper and stock or the milk in which the pumpkin cooked or water, if necessary, until the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed. Stir in the pumpkin mixture and the butter and heat through. Serve with grated parmesan.
[ malfatti ]
They are called malfatti (‘badly made’) in Siena because they are so soft when you roll them that they often come out misshapen, and gnudi (meaning ‘naked’) in Florence because they are the naked filling of ravioli, and referred to as gnocchi. They are served simply with melted butter and parmesan but you can present them on a bed of fresh tomato sauce (see here).
SERVES 6
500g spinach
250g ricotta, drained of its liquid
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
50g grated parmesan plus more to serve with
Salt
Freshly grated black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
2–3 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs or matzo meal
Flour for dusting the dumplings
100g unsalted butter
A bunch of fresh sage leaves
Wash the spinach and remove any hard stems. Put the leaves, with only the water that clings to them, in a large pan with the lid on over medium high heat for 2 minutes or until they wilt into a soft mass. Strain and squeeze out every bit of water – this is all-important – then finely chop the leaves.
Mash the ricotta with a fork and mix in the eggs, parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg and breadcrumbs. Add the spinach and mix very well to form a soft paste. Cover a tray with plenty of flour. Take heaped tablespoons of the mixture, drop them on the flour and roll them, covering them well with flour, and shaping them into balls the size of a walnut.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and very carefully drop in the malfatti, a few at a time. Keep the water barely simmering until they rise to the surface – in about 3–5 minutes. Lift them out with a slotted skimmer (you might need to release some that stick to the bottom of the pan) and put them in a heatproof serving dish.
At the same time melt the butter in a small pan over low heat with the sage leaves. Pour over the malfatti. Heat through the malfatti with their butter in the oven before serving. Serve very hot and pass around the parmesan.
[ penne al gorgonzola ]
SERVES 2
200g penne
Salt
125g gorgonzola dolce or piccante, cut into small pieces
100ml double cream or whole milk
Freshly grated black pepper
Cook the penne in boiling salted water until al dente. At the same time put the gorgonzola in a pan with the milk and stir over low heat with a wooden spoon until the cheese has melted and you have a smooth cream. Drain the penne, put them in the pan with the sauce, sprinkle with pepper and mix well.
VARIATIONS: There are some who add 2 tablespoons of grappa to the sauce.
One version has a mixture of gorgonzola and ricotta blended to a cream in the food processor with a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water.
In Piedmont they add about 8 coarsely chopped walnut halves and 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley.
BAKED POLENTA WITH GORGONZOLA
[ polenta e gorgonzola ]
SERVES 4
300g polenta flour
1 teaspoon salt
75g butter
Freshly ground black pepper
250g gorgonzola, cut into small pieces
Make polenta with the polenta flour and 1.5 litres salted water in the traditional way or with instant polenta (here and here). As soon as it is done, stir in the butter and pepper. Pour a layer of hot polenta into a buttered ovenproof dish, cover with a layer of cheese pieces, then continue with another layer of polenta, another of cheese and finish with polenta. Bake in the oven at 220ºC/200ºC fan/gas 7 until browned.
VARIATIONS: Use taleggio instead of gorgonzola, or as they do in the Valle d’Aosta, fontina.
For a pasticcio di polenta, add alternating layers of thick tomato sauce (here).
[ risotto alla milanese ]
You find this yellow risotto everywhere in Milan, but I wonder how often it is made with saffron threads (rather than powder), real stock and bone marrow: that is how chef Fulvio de Santa makes it at the new restaurant Peck in Milan. Peck offers two menus – a modern one and one offering the old traditional classics of Milanese home cooking. This is the traditional partner to ossobuco.
SERVES 4
1 small onion, chopped
Small piece of marrow from a beef bone (optional)
60g unsalted butter
1 litre meat or chicken stock
300g risotto rice
150ml dry white wine
Salt
½ teaspoon saffron threads, or ¼ teaspoon powdered saffron
50g grated parmesan
Freshly grated black pepper
In a large saucepan, fry the onion and marrow, if using, in half the butter over low heat for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onion is soft and translucent. Heat the stock in a separate pan. Add the rice to the onions and stir for 1 minute to coat the grains well with butter. Add the wine and cook until absorbed. Add the boiling stock gradually, ladleful by ladleful, stirring constantly as it becomes absorbed and adding a little salt and the saffron diluted in some of the stock. When the rice is done in about 15–17 minutes, take off the heat – there should be enough liquid to make it creamy, but the grains must still be firm – and stir in the remaining butter, the parmesan, and salt and pepper.
[ risotto con gli asparagi ]
SERVES 6
1kg asparagus
1.25 litres chicken or vegetable stock
Salt
1 onion, chopped
60g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
350g risotto rice
1 bottle (750ml) dry white wine
Freshly ground black pepper
Grated parmesan to serve with
Trim the asparagus. Cut off about 7.5cm of tips and set them aside. Cut the stalks into pieces and boil them in the stock until very tender. Lift them out and put them through a food processor with a ladle of the stock. Strain out the hard stringy bits and return the purée to the pan with the stock. In another saucepan, cook the asparagus tips in salted water for a few minutes only until just tender.
In a large saucepan, fry the onion in half the butter and the oil over low heat for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains well with the fat. Pour in the wine, bring to the boil, add salt and pepper, and simmer gently, stirring. Add the stock containing the puréed asparagus gradually as it becomes absorbed, stirring often. Continue adding stock as required – you may need only as much as 600ml – until creamy and the grain is al dente. Stir in the rest of the butter and serve garnished with the heated asparagus tips. Pass the parmesan around.
RISOTTO WITH QUAIL
[ risotto con le quaglie ]
SERVES 6
1 onion, chopped
6 quail
3 tablespoons olive oil
125g unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 sprigs of sage
300ml dry Marsala
500g risotto rice
1.5 litres light chicken stock
In a large frying pan, fry the onion in the oil with 25g butter until soft. Put in the quail and turn to brown them all over. Add salt and pepper and the sage leaves, pour in the Marsala and cook gently for about 20 minutes, turning them over a few times, until the quail are done.
In the meantime boil the rice in plenty of stock seasoned with salt and pepper for about 18 minutes, until cooked al dente, then drain quickly. Stir in the remaining butter and serve with the quail on top and the sauce poured over.
[ ossobuco alla milanese ]
Serve with risotto alla milanese (here) or plain white rice.
SERVES 4
4 thick slices of shin of veal, cut with a piece of marrow bone
Flour
50g butter
120ml dry white wine
250g tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or tinned
Meat stock or water
Freshly ground black pepper
For the gremolata
4 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
1 small clove garlic, crushed
1 anchovy, finely chopped (optional)
Coat the meat with flour and brown in butter on both sides. Pour in the wine and simmer for 10 minutes, then add the tomatoes and stock or water to cover. Season with salt and pepper and cook, covered, for 1½–2 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure the meat does not stick, until it is so tender it comes away from the bone. Keep adding stock or water to keep the meat covered at first, but remove the lid to that the sauce is reduced and thick at the end.
Make what is called a gremolata: mix together the parsley, grated lemon rind, garlic and anchovy, if you like. Place a little on each piece of meat and cook a few minutes longer.
[ tacchino di natale ]
Cook the stuffing separately.
SERVES 8
1 small turkey, about 4.5kg
1 orange cut in ½
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 sprigs of sage, chopped
2 sprigs of rosemary, chopped
100g butter, softened
For the filling
4 Golden Delicious apples, cut into pieces
250g soft pitted prunes, chopped
350g frozen chestnuts, defrosted
350g luganega sausage, skinned and cut into small pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
50g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Lay 2 large sheets of foil in a roasting pan, one of them widthways and the other lengthways. Lay the turkey on its back in the middle and remove the trussing and giblets. Sprinkle inside with salt and push the orange in the cavity. Rub the bird with the butter and push some between the breast and skin. To do this lift the skin starting from the neck – gently work your fingers, then your hand, under it then push the butter in, pressing to ease it into and even layer over the breast. Tuck the flap of skin underneath to stop it leaking out.
Sprinkle the turkey with salt and pepper, sage and rosemary and wrap it in the foil so that the parcel is roomy but well sealed. Place it in a pre heated 220°C/200ºC fan/gas 7 for 30 minutes then lower the heat to 170ºC/150ºC fan/gas 2 and cook 2 hours. Open the parcel and turn up the oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan/gas 6. Cook for 20–30 minutes or until the skin is crisp and brown and the juices run clear when you pierce a thigh with a pointed knife.
Mix the stuffing ingredients in a baking dish, press down and cover with foil. Put it in the oven in the shelf below the turkey when the turkey has cooked for 1 hour.
Leave the turkey to rest for 20 minutes before carving and serve with the juices in the foil and the stuffing.
[ dolci di mascarpone ]
This delicious rich creamy cheese made by curdling thick cream with citric acid was first made in Lodi, but it has become so popular in Italy that many regions produce it. It is served with the cheese course, spread on a slice of bread or mixed with sugar and cognac or rum in an emptied wine glass or coffee cup. It is used instead of cream to sauce fruits and pastries.
The classic crema di mascarpone has 2 egg yolks, 150g sugar and 3 tablespoons rum mixed into 250g mascarpone. Two stiffly beaten egg whites are folded in and the fluffy cream is chilled.
For mascarpone al caffè, stir about 2 tablespoons very finely ground or pulverised coffee (a dark roast is good) into 250g mascarpone and add 3 tablespoons or more caster sugar and 2–4 tablespoons rum. Let the flavours infuse for a while, and serve chilled.
STUFFED APRICOTS
[ albicocche ripiene ]
Another name for miascia, from the interior around Lake Como, is turta del paisan, which means ‘peasant cake’. This version is more pudding than cake, and unusually for a sweet, it is flavoured with rosemary.
SERVES 6
700g apricots
25g unsalted butter
6 tablespoons Marsala
For the filling
4 apricots, stones removed
1 large egg
125g ground almonds
125g caster sugar
A few drops almond extract
Make the filling first: put the 4 apricots in the food processor with the egg, almonds, sugar and almond essence and blend to a paste.
Cut the apricots in half, remove the stones, and lay the halves close to each other, cut side up, in a lightly buttered baking dish. Cover each half with almond filling, sprinkle a few shavings of butter on top, pour the Marsala into the dish and bake in the oven at 200ºC/180ºC fan/gas 6 for 25 minutes, or until lightly browned.
[ pesche al vino ]
SERVES 6
6 large ripe peaches or nectarines
About 400ml red wine
2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
Pour boiling water over the peaches or nectarines and skin them. Slice them into a bowl or individual wine glasses and pour the wine over them. Add a little sugar in each glass and leave to macerate for 1 hour.
BREAD PUDDING WITH FRUIT
[ miascia ]
SERVES 6–8
50g raisins
200g firm white country bread, crusts removed
175ml whole milk
70g caster sugar + 2 tablespoons more to sprinkle on top
Grated zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary leaves
2 pears, peeled, cored and cut into small slices
2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into small slices
125g seedless red grapes
Butter to grease the baking dish
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil to sprinkle on top
Soak the raisins in hot water for ½ hour. Reduce the bread to coarse crumbs in the food processor and turn them into a bowl. Pour the milk over them, mix well, and leave to soak for 10 minutes.
Add 70g of sugar, the lemon zest, eggs, and rosemary, and beat vigorously. Then mix in the drained and squeezed sultanas, the pears, apples and grapes and pour into a 28cm baking dish greased with butter.
Sprinkle the olive oil and the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar all over the top and bake in a preheated 180ºC/160ºC fan/gas 4 oven for 1 hour or until the apples are tender and the top is lightly coloured. Serve warm or at room temperature.
[ torta di cioccolato ]
Turin had a dominating influence on Lombardy in the nineteenth century, and this dessert is one of the legacies of that time. The recipe comes from Franco and Silvana Colombani’s delightful Cucina d’amore. The cake is soft and creamy. Serve it with cream if you like and eat it with spoons.
SERVES 8
200g fine quality dark chocolate
125g unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs, separated
200g caster sugar
3 tablespoons plain flour
Icing sugar (optional)
Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl placed over a pan of simmering water (the bowl must not touch the water). Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and 2 tablespoons of the flour, then mix well with the melted butter and chocolate. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them in. Butter a 30cm round baking dish and dust with the remaining flour. Pour in the chocolate mixture and bake at 140ºC/120ºC fan/gas 1 for 45 minutes. Serve cold in the baking dish, dusted if you like with icing sugar.
BAKED PEARS
[ pere al forno ]
SERVES 6
6 firm pears
250g caster sugar
370ml or more dry Marsala or red wine
1 stick cinnamon
1 vanilla pod or a few drops vanilla extract
Put the pears, unpeeled, in a large ovenproof dish with the rest of the ingredients. Bake, uncovered, at 180ºC/160ºC fan/gas 4 for 2–3 hours until they are very soft and wrinkled, turning them two or three times. The time depends on how ripe they are. Serve hot or cold.
