GENOESE PASTRY

Regarding sponge cakes, you won't find any better than Genoese pastry that I've already discussed in the posts on Mazarins and Battenberg cake, for which I used Frederick Vine's excellent recipe dating from 1898. However, Pellegrino Artusi's recipe for pasta Genovese, published seven years earlier in Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, is something else. The difference lies in the number of eggs he used and it's important.

 

 

The port and fleet of Genoa, early 14th c. (by Quinto Cenni, 1909)

 

Recipes from Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well were modest in terms of quantity but ever so demanding as far as quality went. While Frederick Vine and other best-selling authors of the 1890s meant their recipes for professional use, Pellegrino addressed housewives or, in any case, amateurs, and his methods were inspired by his cook Marietta's experience and his own taste and needs. Guided by his own lifestyle but also thinking of families, he calculated recipes so that his dishes served no more than 8-10 people. In the category of desserts - he used the same three or four basic ingredients, resulting in seemingly plain cakes, with little or no filling, except Mediterranean raisins and candied fruit, no spices whatsoever, no flavor other than grated lemon peel (or, rarely, vanilla), and hardly any chocolate (it's why I love Artusi). Yet it's impossible to taste a cake by Pellegrino that's not perfect, in flavor and texture, and much more so than sugar and cream-laden desserts from other parts of Europe or America. One such example is his Genoese pastry.

A method for Genoese pastry was developed in the Italian city of the same name and became popular in 19th century France so it was likely an imported recipe in Pellegrino's household. Genoa was as big a naval power as Venice in medieval and Renaissance times and even though it lost much of its glory after 1650, it remained a major seaport. Its cuisine has been as rich as most on the Italian Peninsula, featuring specialties of meat and fish as well as various kinds of pasta - and for dessert, three recipes that bear the city's name: Genoa cake (enriched with fruit), Genoese pastry (the sponge featured here), and pain de Gênes (a marzipan loaf).

 

 

 

GENOESE PASTRY (PASTA GENOVESE)

This is Pellegrino Artusi's recipe - except that I used cornstarch instead of potato flour. Genoese pastry is usually filled with vanilla cream in modern versions but Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well happily featured simple cakes that were delicious enough without fillings or toppings.

I n g r e d i e n t s

200g  caster sugar

150g butter, melted

170g potato flour (or cornstarch)

110g wheat flour

12 egg yolks

7 egg whites

grated lemon peel

for dusting

confectioner's sugar

M e t h o d

Sift the flours together in a bowl and stir in the grated lemon peel. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, gradually adding the butter. Whisk the egg whites stiff. Combine the three mixtures with a spoon, adding some of the flour, then some of the meringue and so on. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 28cm round baking pan and bake in a preheated oven at 180oC for about 45 minutes. Serve dusted with confectioner's sugar.

N o t e

Pellegrino Artusi insisted on baking in pans that were large enough for the cake to be 2-3cm high. I think it was to make sure the batter was cooked through - given that late 19th century ovens did not have upper heat elements. That's why several of his finest cakes were also baked in a Dutch oven, i.e. covered with a lid.