Torta Caprese--Rich Chocolate Almond Torte

I almost forgot about this delightful cake until my recent visit to Rome. And there I found it displayed in pastry shops and on the menu of restaurants, next to such classic desserts as tiramisu or semifreddo. I also had a chance to try a wonderful home-made torta caprese at a dinner I was invited to by my friend's family.

So today, for Valentine's Day which is all about chocolate treats, I share a recipe for torta caprese, which in essence is a very simple cake but its secret is that it must be made of best quality delicious ingredients.

Most often I make a traditional, most neutral, version of it with ground almonds. However, my favorite torta caprese is made with hazelnuts, especially those from Oregon, which give the cake that special gianduja flavor. Almonds can also be replaced by walnuts. And I recently bought ground cashews to experiment with them next time.

Torta caprese is made without flour (as the ground nuts make up for it entirely) so it is a gluten-free dessert. It is quite rich and moist but I add also some liqueur which gave it an extra flavor and moisture.

Torta caprese can be served with a scoop of good gelato or topped with a dollop of crème fraîche or whipped cream. Anyway, in whatever variation it is served, there is no one, and particularly no true chocolate lover, who will resist a piece of torta caprese.

Torta Caprese

Ingredients:
6 eggs, separated, preferably organic,
6 oz bittersweet good quality (preferably, Belgian) chocolate, broken in small pieces,
1 stick ( 1/2 cup) unsalted butter, plus extra tsp for the form,
3/4 cup sugar,
1 and 1/2 cup blanched and ground almonds (hazelnuts or walnuts),
2 tbsp Amaretto Liqueur, Frangelico, or Grand Marnier,
1 tbsp vanilla,
pinch of salt,
confectioners sugar for dusting.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. prepare a baking 9.5-inch baking form with high, removable walls. Cut out a round piece of waxed paper to the size of the form and place it at the bottom of the form. Grease it with a tsp of butter.
2. Place chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Add butter cut into small pieces and melt either on top of a pot with steaming water or in a microwave oven. If you use a microwave oven, first run it for 30 seconds, then mix chocolate. Repeat again 3-4 times running the microwave oven for no longer than 15-20 seconds at a time, stirring in between with a spatula, until chocolate and butter make a smooth cream. Add vanilla and liqueur to the chocolate cream.

3. In a standing mixer, beat egg yolks with sugar until pale. Add melted chocolate and mix. Sift in ground almonds and mix gently again.
4. In a separate bowl, beat whites of eggs with salt until stiff. Fold the whites into the chocolate batter gently using a spatula. Transfer the batter to the baking form. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is set. Cool, dust the top with confectioners sugar, and serve with crème fraîche or vanilla gelato.

A Very Green Barley and Parsley Salad

Soon enough, I will post several exciting recipes from my recent trip to Italy. But today, I'm sharing a recipe I meant to present for a long time and which has been waiting to be published. It became a huge hit during past holidays and many friends have been enquiring me about it.

Some time ago, a friend, who is a great cook herself, brought me as a gift a cookbook "Jerusalem" by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, recommending it as a source of her many culinary inspirations. The book is beautifully published and recipes are nicely presented in a very modern way. Somehow I had not found the time earlier to go through it, imagining Jewish cuisine as the one I knew from Polish adaptations and to which I was not terribly attracted. But when this fall I started to read "Jerusalem " I absolutely fell in love with it. The book is full of wonderful recipes that are a fusion of two bordering cuisines-Palestinian and Israeli. It presents dishes that are innovative, light and, surprisingly, often vegetarian. Almost each I tried so far, I already repeated and served at dinners with friends, earning many complements.

So today, a salad from "Jerusalem", which became my favorite and even more special to me since I am very familiar with barley which has been always present in Polish cuisine. As almost all of the recipes from this cookbook, this one requires a lot of ingredients, that not everyone would have at hand in the pantry. But each of them is worth getting and trying as they make dishes complex and intriguing. And I promise that if you like this salad you will try every dish from "Jerusalem" and never will be disappointed. I already bought another book by Ottolenghi, one of "Jerusalem's" authors and, as always, I'm looking for more ideas and inspiration.

The salad I share today is quite similar to its original version with the exception of celery sticks. I added them one day as I did not have enough green pepper. It made salad even more green, crispy, and healthy, so ever since it has become my customary ingredient. The barley salad tastes great with meats or just by itself.

Barley and Parsley Salad
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup pearl barley,
a small bunch of spring onion, sliced,
1 green pepper, seeded and cut into small pieces,
a bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped,
2 celery sticks thinly sliced (optional),
2 garlic cloves, minced,
1/2 cup feta cheese,
6 tbsp olive oil,
1 tsp zatar (a mix of Middle Eastern herbs),
1 tsp coriander seeds toasted and crushed,
1/2 tsp ground allspice,
1/2 tsp ground cumin,
1/3 cup cashew nuts toasted and chopped,
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Cook barley according to instruction until al dente. Drain on a colander and cool.
2. Place barley in a large bowl. Add parsley, spring onion, green pepper, celery (if used), garlic, cashew nuts, allspice, lemon juice and 4 tbsp of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Mix gently all the ingredients and set aside.

3. In a small bowl, place feta broken into small pieces. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil, the zatar, coriander seeds, and the cumin. Mix and leave for 10 minutes to marinate.

4. To finish the salad, sprinkle feta on top of greens and serve.

Jerusalem Artichokes Risotto with Mascarpone Cheese

Risotto, like pasta, can be made with many ingredients. My favorite are always vegetarian. Recently, I have been cooking a lot of risottos as they are one of the few dishes that could make my picky kids happy.

When the other day I saw Jerusalem artichokes on the shelves of Harris Teeter I bought a bag of them with the idea of making this risotto. I thought that my kids probably would not try them alone but might accept them if I sneak them into a familiar and well-liked risotto.

Jerusalem artichokes are crunchy and have a quite neutral, slightly earthy and nutty flavor. They are very healthy owing, among others, to the high content of Vitamins B and C and, most importantly, very high level of the fiber called inulin, which is important for the health of the digestive tract and, it has been recently discovered, could usefully supplement weight-loss diets.

Jerusalem artichokes became one of my favorite vegetable discoveries. I have been experimenting with them a lot trying new recipes and including them into the old ones, as today's risotto.

I made this particular risotto with mascarpone cheese which I thought would nicely go with the taste of the artichokes. I finished it with broccoli sprouts that gave extra sharpness to the taste of the risotto and augmented the A, B, C, E, and K vitamin content.

Jerusalem Artichokes Risotto
(Serves 4–6)

Ingredients:

3/4 lb Jerusalem artichokes,
1 tbsp lemon juice,
1 and 1/2 cup Arborio rice, or any risotto type rice,
3 shallots, peeled and chopped,
2 tbsp butter,
2 tbsp olive oil,
1/2 cup dry white wine,
4 cups vegetable stock,
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese,
6 tbsp radish sprouts, or chopped Italian parsley,

Preparation

1. Peel off the artichokes using a vegetable peeler and place them in a bowl with water and lemon juice to prevent from discoloration.
2. Heat olive oil and butter in a large heavy duty frying pan. Add chopped shallots and fry over the medium heat for about 2 minutes.
3. Drain the artichokes, slice them, and then cut them into thick matchsticks. Add to the pan with shallots and fry together for about 5 minutes, until shallots are soft.

4. Add rice and cook on a medium heat, stirring for another minute until coated in vegetable ingredients and slightly toasted.
5. Pour in wine stirring continuously until wine almost evaporates.
6. Heat the vegetable stock in a separate pot and keep it hot. Add about half a cup of stock to the rice stirring continuously until mostly absorbed. Keep adding stock (about half a cup each time), stirring and letting each portion of stock to be absorbed before adding the next. At the end, rice should be cooked but chewy.
7. At last, add mascarpone cheese and mix. Season with salt if needed and freshly ground pepper. Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let it stand briefly before serving.

Serve sprinkled with radish sprouts or parsley.