If you've got a box of amaretti in the store cupboard and aren't quite sure what to do with them, try making this delicious Amaretti Tart from the Venezia cookbook.
Amaretti, those hard almond flavoured biscuits, are an Italian classic – you’re sure to have tasted them with a frothy cup of cappuccino. Here, they are put to imaginative use in a delicious tart made up of layers: pastry, marmalade, the amaretti and finally an egg custard with ground almonds. The recipe, which appears here with permission, comes from Venezia: food and dreams (pub. Murdoch Books, £25), a beautiful new cookery book by Tessa Kiros, focusing on the food of Italy’s most romantic holiday spot - Venice. If you have any homemade marmalade do use it, as it adds a great flavour.
Amaretti Tart - Recipe
Torta di amaretti
Ingredients – Serves 8-10
To make the pastry
- 75g (2 ½ oz) cold unsalted butter, chopped
- 250g (9oz/2 cups) cake (00) flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 75g (2 ½ oz) sugar
- 2 eggs
To make the amaretti filling
- 2 eggs
- 125g (4½ oz) caster (superfine) sugar
- 100g (3½ oz) blanched almonds or coarsely ground almonds
- About 80g (2¾ oz) amaretti biscuits
- About 4 tablespoons rum or cognac
- 2 heaped tablespoons orange marmalade
Method
- To make the pastry, mix the butter in a bowl with the flour, baking powder and sugar until crumbly looking. Add the eggs and mix until it comes together. (Alternatively, pulse together in a food processor.) Press the dough into a ball, flatten a bit and cover with plastic. Chill for at least an hour in the fridge (you can make this a day in advance, or even freeze it at this stage).
- To make the filling, beat the eggs with the sugar for about 5 minutes until thick and pale. If you are using blanched almonds, pulse them in a food processor until coarsely ground. Whisk the ground almonds into the egg mixture with a fork.
- Put the amaretti on a plate. Splash bit by bit with the alcohol until they have absorbed most of it. Heat your oven to 170°C (325°F/Gas 3).
- Wet a sheet of baking paper (about 33 x 48cm / 13 x 19 inches), scrunching it up completely. Then un-scrunch it and shake off the water. Flatten it onto your work surface, drying it with a clean cloth. Roll out your dough on the paper with another sheet of paper on top to help roll it without sticking to the rolling pin. Roll the pastry out to line the base and side of a 24cm (9½ inch) springform tin. If the weather is hot, you may have to refrigerate the pastry again.
- Peel away the top layer of paper and lift the pastry and base layer of paper into your tin, pressing the pastry down well (you will find this easier to do using floured fingers). The pastry rim should be about 2cm (¾ inch) lower than the top of the tin, and the paper underneath the pastry will help you lift it out for serving.
- Prick the pastry base a few times with a fork. Spread the marmalade over the base of the pastry. Layer the soaked amaretti biscuits over the marmalade in a single layer, completely covering the base.
- Gently pour the amaretti filling into the tin – it should come almost to the top of the pastry. Cook the tart for 30-40 minutes until the filling is well set and a bit cracked here and there and the pastry is cooked through and pale golden. If you like, you can dust the tart with icing sugar to serve – though it should be sweet enough as it is.
Now try this recipe for Venetian Vegetable Risotto
The copyright of the article Amaretti Tart Recipe in Italian Baking is owned by Rebecca Ford. Permission to republish Amaretti Tart Recipe in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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