Torta di Nada! Don't you feel different only by reading the title? I did. Every time I glance over it, the soft, optimistic feelings come from within.It sounds like it has a story to tell. And it kind of does.
I baked this beautifully light and moist cake topped with fresh fruit, curtsy of Nada, a girl who made it (with local fragola grapes though) for Jamie Oliver in Tuscany, after which he featured the recipe in Jamie's Italy. So, don't even try to tell me that I made an ordinary, everyday sour cherry cake or some Starbucks style blueberry lemon cake! Because, this cake is very special, but not the same way my mum's sour cherry cake is. That one bares the family soul! This, shows you that the true mastery of baking lies in the details, in the perfect balance of ingredients and small touches. Nada, my family salutes you!
Torta di Nada
4 eggs at room temperature
250 g sugar
180 g unsalted butter, melted
115 ml olive oil
155 ml room temperature milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
400 g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
zest of 2 lemons
zest of 2 oranges
600 g fresh blueberries or stoned, pat dried cherries
(or if you can find them muscat or fragola grapes)
Preheat the oven to 175 C/350F/ gas 4 and grease a 25 cm cake tin. Beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale, then add the butter, olive oil, milk and vanilla. Mix well, sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, then add the lemon and orange zest. Set aside for 10 minutes. Stir about a quarter of the fruit into the batter, then transfer to a prepared tin. Bake for about 15 minutes, take it out from the oven and scatter the remaining fruit over the top. Gently push them down into the cake, return it to the oven for about 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and cake feels firm,
Covered, it keeps well for few days.
