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BOLOGNESE RICE CAKE
Serves 6 to 8
ln Bologna, rice cake used to be made only at Easter, an occasion for lively
rivalry among those families that claimed to have the most delicious and
authentic recipe. The one given here came to me from those well-known Bolognese
bakers, the Simili sisters, who unhesitatingly assured me theirs was the most delicious and authentic version. I leave the question of authenticity
to those more willing than I to discuss it, but it is a fact that I have
never had letter-tasting example of rice cake.
1 quart milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 or 3 strips lemon peel, the skin only, with none of the white pith beneath
it
l1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup rice, preferably imported Italian Arborio rice
4 eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 cup almonds, blanched, skinned, and chopped, as described on page 570
1/3 CUp chopped candied citron
A 6-cup square or rectangular
cake pan
Butter for smearing the pan
Fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs
2 tablespoons rum
1. Put the milk, salt, lemon peel, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to
a moderate boil.
2. As soon as the milk begins to boil, add the rice, stirring it quickly
with a wooden spoon. Adjust heat to cook at the slowest of simmers, and
cook for 2 1/2 hours, stirring from time to time. When done, the mixture will
have become a dense, pale-brown mush. Most of the fine lemon peel should
have dissolved, but if you find any pieces of it, take them out. Set the
rice mush aside to cool.
3. Preheat oven to 350°.
4. Beat the 4 eggs and the yolk in a large bowl until all the yolk whites
are evenly blended. Add the rice mush, beating it into the e spoonful at
a time. Add the chopped almonds and the candied citron, ingthem in uniformly.
5. Generously smear the bottom and sides of the cake pan with butter Sprinkle
the pan with bread crumbs, then turn the pan over and give sharp rap against
the counter to shake off loose crumbs. Pour the mixture from the bowl into
the pan, leveling it off. Place the pan on the middle rack of the preheated
oven, and bake for 1 hour.
6. As soon as you take the pan out of the oven, while the cake is stil pierce
it in several places with a fork, and pour the rum over it. When the cake
is lukewarm, turn the pan over onto a serving platter and shake or tap it
against the counter to work the cake loose. Serve rice cake no sooner than
24 hours after making it; if you let it mature for 2 to 3 days longer, its
flavor become even deeper and richer. To serve it in the traditional Bolognese
fashion, cut the cake, before bringing it to the table, in a diagonally
cross-hatched pattern that will produce diamond-shaped pieces about 2 1/2
inches long.
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