Torta Monferrina

Pumpkin and apple cooked down together before they ever meet the flour.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter).

Ingredients

• 700 g pumpkin, peeled and diced
• 500 g apples, peeled and diced
• 150 g caster sugar
• 100 g amaretti, crushed
• 100 g plain flour
• 3 eggs
• 80 g butter, melted
• 60 ml rum
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

1. COOK THE PUMPKIN AND APPLE TOGETHER IN A DRY COVERED PAN, no water, over a low heat for 30 minutes until collapsing.
2. Then take the lid OFF and cook 15 minutes more, stirring, until the water has gone and the mass holds its shape on a spoon.
3. That reduction is the recipe. Raw pumpkin grated into the batter releases its water in the tin and gives a cake that is wet in the middle however long it bakes.
4. Mash it smooth and let it cool completely.
5. Beat in the sugar, eggs, melted butter, rum and zest, then fold in the flour, crushed amaretti and salt.
6. ONLY 100 G OF FLOUR TO 1.2 KG OF FRUIT. It is barely a cake — the flour is there to bind, and this should be dense and damp rather than risen.
7. Bake at 175C for 1 hour in a lined 24 cm tin. Cool completely before turning out.

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