Frutta Martorana

Almond paste modelled and painted as fruit, cooked on the hob rather than mixed cold.

Not known. This site has not classified “food colouring, several”, so it cannot say whether the dish is vegetarian or vegan.

Ingredients

• 500 g ground almonds
• 500 g caster sugar
• 150 ml water
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• food colouring, several
• 1 tablespoon honey, to glaze

Method

1. Heat the sugar and water to 115C — the soft ball stage, which you can test by dropping a little into cold water.
2. Take it off the heat, tip in the almonds and the extract, and beat hard with a wooden spoon until it comes together into a stiff paste.
3. THE PASTE IS COOKED, NOT MIXED COLD. Almonds stirred into cold syrup give a grainy paste that cracks when modelled; the hot syrup scalds the almonds and makes it smooth enough to take a shape and hold it.
4. Turn it out onto a sugared surface and knead until silky. Wrap and rest it 2 hours.
5. Model into fruit — figs, prickly pears, lemons, cherries. Press a clove in for a stalk end.
6. Leave them uncovered overnight to form a dry skin. Painting a damp surface runs the colour.
7. Paint with colouring diluted in a drop of water, building up in thin washes, then brush with warmed honey for a shine.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes