So very sad that La Cucina Italiana is leaving our shores - Yup this stunningly beautiful magazine will no longer be printing in the United States - such a loss to the culinary wanna-be like me.
In honor of this very last issue I have made the recipe from the cover.
As
frequently happens with food art the recipe did not look like the
photo! In this case either they used a MUCH smaller pan or doubled the
recipe to gain the wondrous height you see in the cover photo...
The
recipe - true to La Cucina form - was a little complicated and required
the use of several of my kitchen power tools. The mess to taste ration
was spot on - my theory - the bigger the mess the better the food!
One wonders why anyone would willingly use SOUR anything in a desert. Straight from the jar the sour cherries were basically meh - what ever. but added to the deep dark flavor of the filling they really popped with flavor and not a bit sour either! Never one to let a good sugar syrup go to waste I reduced the syrup after draining the berries (with a sinful amount of additional sugar added). Well talk about elevating boring to beautiful! Not only was it bright and VERY cherry - it was beautiful to look at! Make the sauce you won't be sorry!
I really worried about the ground almonds in the filling - "it's gonna be grainy" is what I thought. Yes, there was a texture there but it was not unpleasant and think gave this desert a little character it might have lacked without that little roughness. Without it it would have just been a hefty flourless cake...been there done that, have the tee shirt...Rich luscious and of soooo chocolatey this one's a keeper.
torta morbida con amarene in guscio frible
Word
to the wise, make it and eat it - don't refrigerate it - you loose the
lush depth of flavor and the interesting mouth feel once it has been
chilled....
