Rice Cake, the all fiesta's cake! Merry Xmas! Auguri a tutti!

A nice surprise to some friends spred in the world wide web...or just in the wide world. I try to open my english section that won't exactly be the translation of the italian one. To write in English and in Italian is indeed a different job for me. Much better to do it independently. So, here is the English story (I know my writing is no perfect!!), below the Italian one.

By the way, I would like to tell Merry Christmas to everybody, talking about my favourite cake. Which is also the cake of most of my festivities. La torta di Riso. The Rice Cake. It's a cake I was used to eat for Christmas, Easter, my Birthday, my Sister's Birthday, my brother's Birthday, my Mum's Birthday. Maybe only for Dad's Birthday there was not Torta di Riso, because he was often away for job.

The Torta top maker was my grandmother, a huge and practical woman who used to make me laugh a lot.



Because of her special way to say things straight. Like: don't stay around in the kitchen please, leave me alone, let me cook in peace. So to say the grandmother who won't tell you exactly how things are done. So that you will learn in other ways. But I loved my grandma. I really did. I usually did the cake following her recipe which was given to me by my mother who, before Nonna Pina died, could collect some of her recipe in a little book. I am here to say, however, that I recently found another recipe who I find much better because it has some trick that make the cake be extremely delicious.

Sorry Nonna for this but...I am sure you wouldn't have been jealous. 

The cake comes from the book I curated, recently come out by Pendragon Edizionim whose title is "Ricette delle Nuove Famiglie d'Italia" (Recipe of the New Italian Families). The project behind the book is to narrate Italian society today, in its Unity 150th anniversary and meanwhile in a moment of huge change and transition of traditions. Very soon the word tradition will be much different and these families are here to testify the scenario changing. So...where is love there is a family: families of one person, 2 people, separated parents with children, friends sharing a house, algerian women studying Italian and finding a new family, enlarged families of ex wives and husbands with new daughters and sons, gay and lesbian families, big families of more than 6 people. Italy has started her long walk to a new status and these people tell how, even through the recipetelling, a kind of story telling that has to do with the biggest love of us all: food.

So, the recipe I chose from the book is actually a dish I know very well and love so much. And following a tradition of my town, Bologna (north of Italy), this cake called "torta degli addobbi", translatable as "the decorations' cake"  was prepared in the tenth anniversary of the neighbourhood's parish when every family used to decorate the window of the home facade and invite the neighbours/parishioners for a home visit and a piece of cake to taste, usually cut in rhombs and with a toothpick inside to pick it up.

The recipe is from a lady called Anna Bastelli. Her story is funny and supreme and breaks the vision the world has of Italian women: she hates to cook and the only thing she love to do is Torta di Riso.

Merry Xmas and happy Torta di Riso!

Rice Cake

(here English and American conversion table for measures)

Fresh milk 1 liter

Rice (I use a rice for generic use) 100 grams

Sugar (caster or brown) 200 grans

Sweet almonds 100 grams

Candy Cedar 100 grams

Amarettos 100 grams

Fresh eggs 5 small, 4 big

Salt few grains

Liquor (if u like...could be bitter almond, amaretto, rosolio) a small cup

I begin to prepare the cake - writes Anna - 3 days before to eat it. 

I take the almonds an leave them 3/4 hours in a cup of water to make them soften and then peel them and leave them dry on a paper towel.

I put the milk in a pot and make it boil with the few grains of salt and the whole rice which has to be cooked "al dente".

When rice is ready I put all the sugar inside to stop the boiling and make it cool.

I crash together the almonds with cider and amarettos leaving them a bit grainy.

I put the mixture in the milky rice melting well together, adding the liquor, covering the pot and putting it in the fridge for a night

The next day I take a baking tin  real or a tinfoil one, spred with butter and pour the blend inside. I bake it for 2 and half hours 150 dregrees. Torta di Riso likes to be cooked slow and well.

ITALIANO//

Torta di Riso, la torta delle mie feste

E' davvero la torta dei momenti festosi della mia vita. Compleanni di tutta la famiglia, Natali, Pasque...e la cucinava mia nonna Pina di cui vi ho già parlato qui e qui. Una nonna a volte un po' scorbutica (secondo me ad un certo punto si era proprio rotta di tirar su dei nipoti...) ma proprio simpatica e speciale.  L'ultima volta che ho fatto la torta di ruso secondo la sua ricetta, raccolta e messa a posto da mia madre, mi era venuta buona ma non speciale. Forse anche per via del forno scrauso che avevo. Tre giorni fa l'ho iniziata a fare con una nuova ricetta, quella dell'Anna Bastelli (una signora che odia cucinare e fa solo con gioia questa torta, la cosidetta torta degli addobbi che si cucinava in occasione dei 10 anni della propria parrocchia, circostanza in cui si addobbavano le finestre di casa) del libro che ho curato "Ricette delle Nuove Famiglie d'Italia". E ho scoperto alcuni segreti che d'ora in avanti farò mie. Ottimizzando anche la torta della nonna...nonnina non te ne volere! Il primo è la cottura, lunga 2 ore e mezza. Il secondo è far riposare il composto nel frigo una notte. Il terzo è mangiarla il giorno dopo che si è cotta. 

Fatto tutto. Torta pronta da ieri e perfetta per essere portata al pranzo di Natale oggi.

Un augurio di pace e serenità a tutte le amiche e gli amici della blogosfera cuciniera!

Torta di Riso dell'Anna Bastelli

Latte fresco 1 litro

Riso 100 gr

Zucchero (semolato o di canna per chi lo preferisce) 200 gr

Mandorle dolci 100 gr

Cedro candito 100 gr

Amaretti 100 gr

Uova fresche 5 piccole o 4 grandi

Pizzichi di sale 2

Liquore a piacere (io un bicchierino di rosolio...avevo solo questo)

Comincio a prepararla tre giorni prima.

Inizialmente metto le mandorle a bagno per 3/4 ore così che si ammorbidiscono e le pelo facilmente. Poi le faccio asciugare sulla carta. Intanto Faccio bollire il riso nel latte e con due pizzichi di sale e cuocio al dente. Spengo sotto il riso e unisco subito lo zucchero per fermare la cottura. Mescolo e faccio raffreddare.

Macino insieme (io l'ho fatto nel robot) mandorle, cedri, amaretti e li lascio un po' granulosi. Poi unisco le uova ma non le frullo, altrimenti viene un souffle. Aggiungo l'ompasto al riso e  e verso il liquore (buono se avete mandorla amara, amaretto o brandy).

Faccio riposare in frigo una notte e il giorno dopo verso l'impasto in una teglia (anche di stagnola) e faccio cuocere per due ore e mezza a 150 gradi. Lascio raffreddare e possibilmente la mangio/faccio mangiare il giorno dopo tagliandola a rombi e servendomi con uno stuzzicadenti o firchettina a due dentini di plastica.