Italian Buckwheat Torta

Italy stretches over 2000 kilometers, from the heel of the Italian boot where you can almost see the Tunisian coasts, to the confines of Austria, where Italians speak German. What goes on in their kitchens is a world apart. We all are familiar with pasta and pizza and risotto and sometimes even polenta. But the specialties of Trentino Alto Adige, Italy's northernmost province, shares more with its Tyrolian cousins than with the rest of Italy. Until 1919 this province belonged to Austria Hungary and it is still called Südtyrol.

Trentino Alto Adige is a land of mountain farmers who edge a living on a hard soil. People from the Italian plains saw their life change with the arrival of corn, which they named granoturco the 'Turkish grain' but corn does not grow up there on the Alps. When buckwheat arrived, the Italians called grano saraceno, the Saracens' grain, and it changed the lives of people in the Alps like it changed those of Russians or the Brittons. Nowhere in Europe have I seen such profligate use of buckwheat in all areas of cooking than in Trentino Alto Adige. Man, there is nothing they won't do with buckwheat flour. From a grayish polenta you could choke a whale with, the fearsome polenta nera that nearly cost me my life when I tried to swallow it, to delicious buckwheat pasta, fried raviolis and many sweets. Today I will show you a simple and much loved buckwheat torta.

Torta al grano saraceno
Italian buckwheat cake
200 grams / 7 oz buckwheat flour
6 eggs
250 grams / 0.5lb sugar
250 grams / 0.5lb almond powder
250 grams / 0.5lb butter
Vanilla extract, or 1 vanilla pod grated, or a bag vanilla sugar
500 grams / 1 lb blueberry jam
Confectioner's sugar to sprinkle over the cake
Salt

The cake is built on the usual holy trinity of butter, flour, sugar and powdered almonds in equal quantities. Start by working the butter into a cream with a paddle, then combine the sugars until you have a smooth mixture.

6 eggs, no more, no less. This is a rich cake fit for a buckwheat farmer's high tea.

Separate the yolks from the egg whites and add the yolks to the mix.

Whisk them in.

Let her majesty the buckwheat flour, star of the day, join the show.

Then our supporting actor, the almond powder.

Mix everything...

...until you have a smooth cake batter/dough.

You will have to deserve those calories. Beat the egg whites stiff...

... then fold them in delicately.

Grease the circular cake pan with a piece of butter. I know a pastry chef who puts the cake pan in the frige after that, then, when the butter has set, he greases it a second time, and finally sprinkles flour on top to ensure a smoothless unmolding.

Fill your pan with the dough, trying not to make a mess around the edges. Smooth the surface and remove any bits on the sides - these would burn.

Bake for about 45 minutes at 180°C/350°F. Unmold with care and leave it to cool for a couple minutes.

With a long serrated blade, love and care, delicately slice through the cake like I do on the picture so as to obtain two discs of equal thickness.

Split the cake in two.

Time for the blueberry jam. I got this one from a mama from my local farmers' market, a very fine product really. If you can't find any decent jam, you might substitute with a different black fruit jam. By decent I mean a jam not having half of it made from pumpkin flesh.

Spread the jam on the bottom half...

... until you run out of jam or of surface, whichever comes first!

Cover with the top half. Try not to make a mess, you don't want jam splurting across the kitchen as you press on the top.

Now we'll decorate the cake with some very fine confectioner's sugar and a fancy device designed to create sweet snow on cakes.

Proceed to cover the entire surface.

There we are - time for the reward. Use a serrated blade and sharp movements to cut the cake without making the top half slide on its bed of jam.

Remove with caution.

Enjoy this filling but very authentic and characterful cake!

This recipe comes from:
Osteria Nerina
Via De Gasperi, 31
38010 Malgolo di Romeno (Trento)
Phone +39 0 463 - 510111
Some recipes include cocoa or hazelnut powder and grate apples.