Torta di nocciole: Piedmont's hazelnut cake for the new crop
One bowl, one tin, almost no flour. The Langhe's plainest cake is at its best with this autumn's hazelnuts, and it keeps all week.
Every November my kitchen smells of toasted hazelnuts. The new crop from the Langhe has been out of its husks for about two months now, the nuts are at their sweetest, and bakeries from Alba to Cortemilia have a torta di nocciole on the counter. It is the plainest cake in Piedmont and one of the best: ground nuts, eggs, sugar, butter and very little flour.
It is also a cake for people who hate fuss. One bowl, one tin, no icing. It keeps for days and tastes better on the second, so bake it this weekend and dessert is sorted for Tuesday, when half of Sweden sits down to Mårten Gås. After a rich goose it is a lighter ending than another apple cake.
Start with good nuts
The famous ones are Nocciola Piemonte IGP, from the Tonda Gentile Trilobata variety: round, thin-skinned and very aromatic once toasted. They cost more than ordinary hazelnuts, and in a cake that is mostly nuts you will taste the difference. If you can't find them, buy whole, skin-on hazelnuts from a shop that sells a lot of them, and taste one first. Hazelnuts are full of oil, and oil goes rancid. A bitter, stale or paint-like flavour means they are past it. Keep shelled nuts in a sealed jar in the fridge, or in the freezer for longer.
Bella's torta di nocciole
For a 24 cm springform tin, buttered and lined with baking paper. Serves 8 to 10.
- Hazelnuts: 250 g whole, skin-on
- Sugar: 150 g caster sugar
- Eggs: 3, at room temperature (mine come from the hen house, still warm)
- Butter: 120 g, melted and cooled until just warm
- Flour: 60 g plain or 00 flour
- Baking powder: 2 level tsp
- Salt: a good pinch
- To finish: icing sugar for dusting
- Toast: spread the nuts on a tray and roast at 160°C for 10 to 12 minutes, until the skins crack and the kitchen smells of them. Watch the last minutes; they burn fast.
- Skin: tip them into a clean tea towel while hot, fold it over and rub hard. Most of the skins come away. Don't chase every last bit.
- Grind: cool completely, then blitz with 2 tbsp of the sugar until fine and sandy. The sugar stops them turning to paste. Pulse, don't run the motor.
- Whisk: beat the eggs with the rest of the sugar for 5 to 6 minutes, until pale, thick and doubled.
- Fold: stir in the butter, then fold in the nuts, flour, baking powder and salt with a spatula. Keep the air in.
- Bake: 175°C for 35 to 40 minutes, until deep golden and a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then on a rack. Dust with icing sugar.
Bella's tip: Brown the butter first. Cook it until it smells of toffee and the bits on the bottom turn hazelnut brown, then let it cool. It doubles the nutty flavour, and it takes five minutes.
How to serve it
In Piedmont the classic partner is zabaglione, whisked warm with Moscato. A spoonful of softly whipped cream is just as good, and so is a ripe pear poached in red wine, the cake soaking up a little of the syrup. In the morning I have a cold slice with an espresso and call it breakfast.
Wrapped well or kept in a tin, the cake stays moist for four to five days at room temperature. It also freezes well, whole or in slices, for up to two months. Thaw it in the wrapping so it doesn't dry out.
Recipe: red wine poached pears
What to pour
- Moscato d'Asti: Lightly sparkling, sweet and low in alcohol. Grapes and nuts from the same hills, and the obvious match.
- Barolo Chinato: Barolo aromatised with cinchona bark and spices. Bittersweet and warming, a small glass by the fire.
- A strong espresso: The best non-alcoholic partner there is. The roast and the toasted nuts speak the same language.
Guide: piedmont wines
Make it once with good nuts and you will understand why a Piedmontese grandmother never buys this cake. Mine never did.
