Easter Rice Cake

An Easter rice cake

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Arancini Stuffed Italian Rice Balls, Creamy Risotto with Blue Cheese & Pears Recipe, Easter rice cake recipe, Gorgonzola Risotto, Old fashioned easter rice cake, Rice Cake, riso gallo

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 1 20

Total Time 1 30

Servings 10 people

Equipment

1 Hob
1 Lined baking tin

Ingredients

700 ml milk
1 lemon, zested
75 g butter
75 g caster sugar or muscovado sugar
3 eggs large
2 tsp vanilla
20 ml strega

Instructions

Warm the milk and add the rice for 15 minutes or so until cooked through.
Add the lemon zest and stir.
Ensure the base of the pan does not catch, intermittent stirring will be required.
Remove the pan from the heat and tip the rice and milk into a large bowl. Allow the rice to sit for 15 minutes to cool.
Pre-heat the oven, 140C fan assisted.
Line and grease your cake tin.
Add the butter and sugar to the rice and stir well along with the vanilla and strega or limoncello. Squeeze in half the juice from the lemon.
Separate the eggs and add the yolks to the rice and stir. Whisk the whites until they become fluffy clouds.
Fold the whites into the rice and pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin.
Bake for 50 minutes.
Carmela’s tip: You can substitute the lemon with a clementine or orange.

Notes

Easter - Rice cake (Torta di riso)

The celebration of Easter embraces the grain of rice in this wonderful way. You can use a pudding rice if you prefer however I would recommend for you to use a risotto rice such as arborio or carnaroli.

Easter is early this year, and I am totally here for its advanced springtime arrival. The shops are full to bursting with easter eggs, chocolates, and celebration sweeties. Lucky for my waistline I do not harbour a sweet tooth, however, that said as soon as I take my first bite off the top of one of those gooey filled eggs, please be rest assured I will hold no prisoners and eat the lot! The Easter period is most definitely one of my favourite holidays of the year and as an Italian family, we would eat meat-free on Good Friday (we should every Friday), then feast all together on Easter Sunday to celebrate.

The lead up as with any celebration period is always the best part. The aromas that would echo from Nonna and my mammas kitchens would be enough to place you into a foodie daze, so wonderful. Through food we have, and remember memories and with every passing year, this seems to be even more important, forever missing someone who would be sitting around the family table.

Small custard and ricotta filled cakes, deep fried pizza dough, sweet rice cakes with vanilla and strega liquor and my favourite pizza chiena (a pastry pie filled with cured meat and cheese). For dinner we would always have spezzatello. This is a lamb-based dish, I also like it with pork too. The meat is fried off, then cooked in stock with greens such as dandelion leaves, cavolo nero or escarole. Beaten eggs and Parmigiano Reggiano would be added just before baking. This is incredibly traditional and a dish that is worthy to be eaten throughout the year and not just at Easter, bread for dipping is essential.

Within our family, my mamma still makes the best spezzatello and nonna did make the best rice cake (torta di riso). There was something about nonnas pastry that my mamma, aunty Lena and myself, find hard to replicate. This meaning that the rice cake will never taste exactly how we remember, but we will endeavour to continue to master nonnas crumbly oil-based pastry through trial and error.

Today I am sharing with you, my Easter rice cake, la mia torta di riso. This is the version that I truly adore and enjoy. Please do not be fooled into thinking that rice doesn’t belong in a cake, because I can assure you it does. This torta is best kept in the fridge once made and can be enjoyed warm or cold, I love it cold with a hot shot of coffee.