PAPAL OR HASTY PUDDING

(Zuppa Papale or Zuppa Imprescia)

Serves 6

EGG CUSTARD

35 g/1½ oz plus 1 tablespoon corn flour

1 litre/2 pints milk

275 g/10 oz sugar

4 egg yolks

½ vanilla bean or 1 large strip of lemon or orange peel

1 slice of pan di Spagna, 23 cm/9 inches in diameter and 2 cm/¾ inch thick

Zuccata preserves, apricot jam, or a sweet liqueur

Put the corn flour in a saucepan, add the milk slowly, stirring to dissolve all the lumps, and then add the sugar, egg yolks, and flavouring. Beat together and place over a low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the custard begins to thicken a little, but do not boil it. When slightly thickened, remove it from the heat and allow to cool.

Spread the pan di Spagna with the preserves or the jam, or sprinkle it liberally with liqueur. Cut into 6 pieces and place each piece on a dessert plate. Ladle the tepid custard over the cake. Serve at room temperature.

If this is indeed the zuppa imprescia, then I assume that the chocolate and the pistachios that Palmieri mentions were sprinkled over the top.

The convent of the Origlione was famous, as the Abbot Meli tells us, for the impanatelle filled with meat and chocolate that are mentioned in Chapter Four, and also for arnarena ’ncilippati, a sour-cherry syrup that when diluted with ice water provides an excellent antidote to the heat of the Sicilian summer.