Do we need another Italian regional cookbook? The answer is yes, if it's Bologna Mia, a modest volume that nonetheless captures the spirit and letter of Bolognese cooking and the texture of the Bologna-born author's life. Offering more than 80 authentic recipes for familiar and unexpected fare, the book chronicles author Loretta Paganini's childhood and adolescence spent with two great cooks: her mother, proprietor of a pasticceria, and grandmother, home cook extraordinaire. Each story
My mother's name is Tilde, and this is her famous recipe for making what we call in Bologna Pain Special, or special bread. During the Christmas holidays our bakery sold so many of these that we could hardly keep up with demand.
Serves 8
2 cups honey
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup Marsala wine
4 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer cookie crumbs
1/2 cup apricot jelly
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup candid orange peel
1 cup toasted almonds
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
8 ounces chocolate, coarsely chopped
Decorations
Candid cherries
candied orange peel
toasted almonds
In a heavy 3 quart saucepan, heat the honey, sugar, and water and cook over low heat until the sugar melts. Remove from the heat and reserve.
Soak the raisins in the wine. Sift the flour with the baking powder, cocoa, and salt into a large bowl. Slowly pour in the honey mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon.
Stir in the cookie crumbs, jelly, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and vanilla extract. Add the raisins, orange peel, almonds, pine nuts, chocolate, and wine as needed to the mixture and combine.
Line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper. Grease and reserve. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Decorate with candied cherries, candied orange peel, and almonds.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the cake tests done.
Remove cake from the oven and cool before serving.
