I recently purchased two
Italian cookbooks written by Laura Zavan: Venice
Cult Recipes (Murdoch Books, 2014) and Dolce
(Murdoch Books, 2016). I bought Venice
Cult Recipes on a lark because, well…its goofy title intrigued me. The
first recipe I tried, Spaghettoni alla
Busara (Spaghettoni with Scampi) turned out fantastic. I used my torchio (here) to make bigoli, a Venetian spaghettoni or thick spaghetti. Zavan’s recipe calls for whole
scampi (or langoustines, red-claw crayfish or large prawns/shrimps). My local market had a tank of live stripe
shrimp, so I bought a couple of pounds. The briny, sweet shrimp cooked in shell
with white wine, dried chilies and tomatoes transported me back to Venice. If
you can’t find spaghettoni, don’t
skip this recipe! Use bucatini or
even fresh fettuccini instead.
Venice Cult Recipes so impressed me that I went looking for other
books written by Zavan and found Dolce,
subtitled “80 Authentic Italian Sweet Treats, Cakes & Desserts”. A quick
read through the book looked promising. Zavan divides Dolce’s recipes into six major chapters: Tiramisú; Panna Cotta;
Tarts & Tartlets; Cakes & Festive Cakes; Biscuits, Breakfasts & Snacks;
and Ice Creams & Frozen Desserts. One of the recipes in the Cakes &
Festive Cakes section looked particularly interesting: Torta Sabbiosa or Sandy Cake. Zavan writes that this
vanilla-flavored cake, popular in Italy’s Veneto region, originated in Pavia at
the end of the 19th century. What
attracted me to the recipe, apart from its Veneto connection, is that the
recipe calls for potato starch (also called potato flour). Zavan promised that using potato starch along
with powdered sugar produces a cake texture reminiscent of fine sand (sabbia in Italian). Being a sucker for sablés, the crumbly butter cookie whose
name means sandy in French, I had to try Zavan’s Sandy Cake. It tasted outstanding!
This recipe serves 6 to 8.
200 g butter, softened, plus extra, for
greasing
½ vanilla bean
200 g icing
(confectioners’) sugar, plus extra, for dusting
3 eggs, lightly whisked,
at room temperature
100 g plain (all-purpose)
flour, plus extra, for the cake tin
100 g potato flour (potato
starch)
1 pinch fine salt
Have the butter at room
temperature for at least 3 hours ahead of time. Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F).
Scrap out the seeds of the
vanilla bean half. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with the icing
sugar and vanilla seeds until creamy. Add the whisked eggs, one spoonful at a
time, mixing well after each addition until you have a thick and smooth
consistency.
Sift the flour and potato
starch together before gradually incorporating them into the mixture. Add the
salt and mix through.
Grease and flour a 22-24
cm (8 ½ - 9 ½ inch) round cake tin. Pour in the batter and bake for 40 minutes,
or until golden. Cool in the tin for 1 hour, then remove and dust with icing
sugar before serving.
Zavan writes that Torta sabbiosa "is a quite
substantial cake, more an afternoon snack than a dessert.” I hate to quibble,
but Zavan is not entirely correct. A substantial cake? Yes. But I submit that one
can enjoy this buttery cake as a snack and
as a dessert (and at breakfast and at elevenses). This cake tastes
delicious, anytime and anywhere, and only gets better if it sits in the
refrigerator over a day or two (if the Sandy Cake isn’t gobbled up sooner).
