Recipe: Rustic Torte (Torta Rustica) (with almonds and hazelnuts) (Italian)

RUSTIC TORTE (TORTA RUSTICA)

"For those who know it, this will be reminiscent of Huguenot torte, an old favorite in South Carolina kitchens. I make no claim for a link between Tuscany and Charleston except that both are regions noted for care in the kitchen. This is my adaptation of a recipe in Dolci di Siena e della Toscana, a collection of traditional Tuscan sweets compiled by Giovanni Righi Parenti, who says that the cake was covered in days of yore with crushed dried figs and nuts mixed with honey. This plainer version is more in keeping with today's tastes."

Butter and flour for the pans
1 cup whole hazelnuts
1 1/2 cups whole blanched almonds
1 1/2 cups unbleached pastry flour
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup milk
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Lightly butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

Spread the hazelnuts on a flat sheet pan and place in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they are toasted golden brown (watch carefully lest they darken too much). Remove and transfer to a kitchen towel.

Put the almonds on the sheet pan and toast them the same way.

While the almonds are baking, rub the hazelnuts vigorously in the towel to rid them of most of their skins.

When the almonds are done, combine them with the hazelnuts and chop them on a board as finely as possible, or use a food processor to process them, working in short bursts, 1/2 cup at a time, to a fine granular texture. (Be careful not to overprocess to a paste.)

Combine the ground nuts with the flour and cornmeal in a large bowl, tossing to mix well.

Raise the oven temperature to 375 degrees F.

In a smaller bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in the milk, then combine with the dry mixture and fold to mix well.

In a separate bowl with clean beaters, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter, then fold in the remaining egg whites and turn the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake 45 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and the cakes pull away from the sides of the pans. Remove and let cool on a rack, then loosen the sides of the cakes with a palette knife and turn them out on the rack.

Note:
Some cooks spread a little jam or marmalade as a glaze over the tops of the still warm cakes before serving with a dollop of whipped cream, but it's also very good on its own, a dry, crunchy, barely sweetened cake to serve with vin santo or a sweet dessert wine.

Makes 2 cakes, 12 to 16 servings
Excerpted from Flavors of Tuscany by Nancy Jenkins
Copyright 1998 by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.