A poor man’s cake straight from Venice! The triumph of the “Cucina (or Pasticceria) Povera”!
ingredients for 8 generous servings (cost about 8 € with organic products)
- 250 stale breadcrumbs
- 750 ml milk
- 75 g butter
- 125 g sugar
- 4 eggs
- 100 g sultanas and/ or black currants
- 60 ml orange juice and/ or tangerine juice
- 100 g candied orange and/ or tangerine peels
- a handful of finely processed bread crust to dust the cake tin
This cake – named after the “Nicolotti” – inhabitants of the poorest district of Venice, is a classic example of making profit of the leftovers. Stale bread soaked in milk, a little butter to add consistency and to make the cake more silky, a few eggs to bind the preparation, a little sugar to sweeten it and a handful of raisins to bring it to another level! The result? MIRACULOUS!
I must say that originally the raisins are soaked in alcohol (rum), but, personally, I prefer using tangerine juice, which works equally well, providing them the moisture they need, while at the same time, offering their beautiful aroma. I also add a generous portion of candied peels, which I have always available in my fridge.
So, to make the famous torta Nicolotta, first of all we reduce the bread into coarse breadcrumbs and we place them in a large bowl.
We warm the juice just a little, we poor it over the raisins and we let them soak in it for about 30 minutes, then we strain them well and we try to remove as much of their moisture as possible with kitchen paper. We also chop the candied peels in small dice.
Meanwhile, we heat the milk and before it reaches the boiling point we add the sugar and the butter and we stir just until the sugar dissolves and the butter melts. We poor it over the breadcrumbs and we let them soak, until they absorb most of the milk (it will need about 30-45 minutes).
After the breadcrumbs have absorbed the milk, we briefly beat the eggs and we poor them over the soaked crumbs, mixing just to combine. ATTENTION: Do not overmix because the batter will result chewy. We then add the raisins and the candied peels.
We transfer the batter into a well buttered, lined with parchment, re-buttered and floured 23 cm round cake tin and we bake in a preheated static oven at 175ºC for about 60 minutes. We lower to 170-165o C and we continue baking for another 15 minutes. Then, we turn off the oven and we let the cake inside for another 5 minutes. In the end it should have settled, it should have raised in the middle (after cooling it will sink again a little, that’s normal) and it should have a colored surface.
When the cake is ready, we remove it from the oven, we let it cool completely inside the tin, then we umold and we keep it in the fridge, well wrapped with cling film.
Combine it with vanilla ice cream and diluted orange marmalade for a perfect dessert.
