Italy has hundreds of cakes, sweets, and other delights. Here's a selection of my favorites, some traditional and others quite newfangled. The one characteristic they share is that they don't require a spoon.
There are two kinds of crostata: Jam and fresh fruit. Both begin with a disk of pasta frolla (Italian shortbread) -- with a jam crostata you spread jam over it, then a cross hatch pattern of strips of dough, and bake it to obtain one of the simplest Tuscan country desserts. With a fresh fruit crostata you bake the dough, spread a layer of pastry cream over it, and then top it with perfectly ripe sliced fresh fruit in a pretty pattern to obtain something extraordinarily elegant and tasty.
In introducing this recipe, Artusi tells of a friend who began making Torte Mantovane in his shop and had to hire more people to meet the demand. It's wonderful with vinsanto, but I like it even better for breakfast, with caffèlatte.
The word pudding is actually a misnomer, because a good budino di riso is firm enough that you can slice it and pick it up. It's also an excellent use for milk that has reached the use by date, and is extremely easy, in addition to being tasty enough that you may want to serve it to company despite its semplicity.
There are a great many variations on the concept of torta di ricotta in Italy, some extremely simple and others gaudy and exhuberant. Here are two extremes, one from Naples that's worthy of company, and another, from Siena, that's family fare.
Cannoli are a Carnival treat from Palermo, or at least that's how they began. However, now they're made year round and you'll find them throughout Italy. The secret to good cannoli is the airiness of the ricotta-based filling, which should be light, and not weigh you down.
This light, orangy cake is a traditional Florentine Easter treat. If you want to be simple, you dust it with powdered sugar, but it really comes into its own if you split it and fill it with a layer of whipped cream, or better yet
crema chantilly (whipped cream folded into the same volume of
pastry cream). Powdered sugar on top as always, and expect it to go very fast.
This is a rustic Tuscan harvest pie of sorts, made with wine grapes, crushed walunts if you like them, anise or rosemary, if you like them, and that's about it, in addition to the crust. Very simple, and quite easy, and if you live where wine grapes are available (table grapes aren't sweet enough and have too much moisture) by all means try it. In Tuscany we use red grapes, but Chardonnay or Sauvignon would work well too.
This is yet another Easter treat, a rich grain and ricotta pie that owes much of its charm to orange scented water. If you start from scratch, soaking the grain, it it extremely involved, but good Italian delis sell presoaked grain that's ready for use, at which point the pastiera is no more difficult than any other pie. But much tastier than many.
This is the classic Italian layer cake made with disks of pan di spagna that are drizzled with Marsala or liqueur, and then spread with pastry cream or crema chantilly (
pastry cream with an equal volume of whipped cream folded into it). I often find those made in pastry shops too alcoholic for my taste, but home made cakes can be very nice indeed, and if you buy disks of pan di spagna or genoise, it's also quick to do.
A good hazelnut cake is light, airy, and extraordinarily tasty. I'm told they also keep well, but I don't know because I've never made too much hazelnut cake. Only too little.
