This was one of the desserts I was really looking forward to trying. I love cakes, and Marcella's description made me look forward to it even more. She said this cake is a local specialty of Venice. During Venice's trading days with the Near East, they obtained ingredients such as the nuts and dried fruits that are ingredients in this cake.
The cake is a mixture of course cornmeal, olive oil, butter,sugar, pine nuts, raisins, dried figs, egg, fennel seed, and flour. It's a very easy cake to mix up, then the cake bakes for about 45 minutes. It's a pretty dense, rich cake, nicely served with a spoonful of whipped cream. I loved the flavor of the fennel seeds with the dried fruits and nuts. The only thing that I didn't love was the texture. I like a mealy texture of cornbread cakes, but maybe my cornbread was too coarse for this. The brand I used looked pretty coarse, so I even used the medium grind. But it was still very granular in the cake. Oh well, it tasted good, so that's the main concern.
Comments (3)
This looks good, Cindy. But I would leave out the raisins. I'm one of those weird people who loves raisins, but not cooked into anything.
Marcella, if you were to leave out the raisins, would you substitute something else - like another dried fruit - or would you just leave out the raisins and be done with it?
Posted by Deborah | April 23, 2011 10:11 AM
Posted on April 23, 2011 10:11
When you don't like one of the key ingredients in a recipe, Deborah, make a different dish. Don't you like panettone, either?
Deborah responds:
Marcella, I like everything about panettone but the raisins. I like everything about bread pudding but the raisins. And I like everything about a palmful of raisins. I'm weird.
Posted by Marcella Hazan | April 24, 2011 5:45 PM
Posted on April 24, 2011 17:45
I have made the polenta cake a number of times and I like it very much. However when I was in Venice this past October, i saw a cake in the window of a bakery in Cannareggio, near Piazza San Felice, on Strada Nova. thinking about Hazan's Torta d Polenta I went in and bought a slice. It had a very slightly greenish tan color because of the pistachios which were used. I think it did NOT have fennel, but possibly cardamon. It was lighter than the Torta di Polenta. Any recipe suggestions? I have done a lot of searching for this cake but I have not gotten a recipe which seems to be what I am looking for. As soon as anyone hears about the pistachios, they want to send a recipe for "pistacchione", which is not what I am looking for.This was a cake, not a cookie.
Posted by Toby Klebenov | January 11, 2012 7:31 AM
Posted on January 11, 2012 07:31