Italian traditional dessert recipes

Here is one of the best Italian traditional dessert recipes: Torta Della Nonna.

Torta della Nonna or Granny’s Cake is prepared with custard and pine nuts: a bundle of sweet delicate antique flavor and surprising goodness. Whether born in Florence or in another region, Torta della Nonna has had a success as few other cakes have had in Italy. 
A crispy shell of pastry with a soft heart, filled with custard flavored with lemon. It is then enreiched with pine nuts on the top.Torta della nonna is the perfect dessert for after dinner or to bring as a gift when you are a guest in someone’s home. It is also ideal for a sweet picnic.

We often include it in the menu of our cooking classes in a Venetian Palace in Venice.

Torta della Nonna – Granny’s pie

A delicious slice of Torta Della Nonna

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

7 tablespoons sugar,

120 gr butter,

1 egg + 1 yolk,

350 gr plain flour,

2 teaspoon baking powder,

2 teaspoons grappa,

pinch of salt

For the filling:

3 yolks,

6 tablespoons sugar,

3 tablespoons flour,

the rind of a lemon,

1 teaspoon of vanilla flavouring,

½ litre milk,

pinch of salt,

150 gr of pine kernels.

To make the pastry: mix the flour with the butter and the salt until it resembles breadcrumbs (use a palette knife to help you to do this). Add the egg and the yolk, the baking poder, the sugar and the grappa. Mix until you have a nice and smooth dough. Put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Prepare the cream: bring the milk to boiling point and take off the heat. Take the eggs and sugar a nd beat them until the eggs are pale. Add the flour. Slowly and stirring all the time, add the hot milk. Add the lemon rind, the vanilla and the salt. Bring back to boil and keep stirring until the cream thickens. At this stage take off the heat.

Take the pastry dough and divide in two parts. Roll out two pastry rounds and with one line a small fluted round pie dish which you previously greased. Fill the pastry with the cream and cover with the second circle of pastry. Using a fork make some holes on the top of the pie and also always using your fork seal the hedges of the pie. Take the pine kernels and spread all over the pie.

Cook at about 200 degrees for about 35-40 minutes or at least until the pie is nice and golden.

Remove from the oven, let the pie cool and then sprinkle with icing sugar