Pasta Margherita, the perfect base for a layer cake

This is based on the recipe Alessandro Pradelli gives in La Cucina Lombarda. He suggests it be served cold, covered with chocolate icing, zabaione, or whatever, or used as a base for preparing other cakes, for example polenta e osei.

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup potato starch (many US supermarkets consider this a Jewish ingredient for some reason)
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 6 eggs, separated
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• Butter for buttering the pan
• Flour for flouring the buttered pan

Preheat your oven to 370 F (180 C)

Beat the whites to moderately stiff peaks.

Whip the yolks and the powdered sugar until you obtain a fluffy white mixture. Fold in, a bit at a time, the whipped whites, the starch, the flour, and the butter.

Butter and flour a pan (he doesn't say how big; I would try a 10-inch pan to start with), pour in the batter, and bake it in a preheated oven until done, about 30 minutes.

A printer-friendly version of the above.

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