6 Thursday November 25 2021 | the timesthe table
comes from his heritage,” and spoke
about his hopes to co-write a book
with his father, a former professional
chef and patissier, to preserve his
culinary legacy for his grandchildren.
Leafing through my recipe book
collection, I came across Le Ricette di
Giuliana, a beautifully bound book I
picked up in Tuscany. It is a collection
of notebook scraps and word-of-
mouth recipes from the writer’s
grandmother and mother. In it, she
describes an Italian family cook as a
“kind of magician, the custodian of
secrets passed down by word of mouth
from... generation to generation”.
The most precious family recipe in
this particular book is La Torta della
Nonna, literally translated as “The
Grandmother’s Cake”, an Italian
custard tart, with a delicately pine-nut
scented pastry that is popular in
Tuscany and Liguria.
Liguria sits on the northwest corner
of Italy and is known for its hot sun
and sea breeze, as well as its plentiful
supply of olive trees. The writer Anna
Del Conte claims it to be the region
where focaccia, that most famous of
Italian breads, is at its most perfect.
Infinitely adaptable, the olive oil-based
dough can be topped with sugar,
raisins and honey for a sweet Ligurian
twist, or with nothing but flaky sea
salt. The trick is not to overload
the dough with too many extra
ingredients. In Dell’Anno’s case, he
dotted his sparingly with cherry
tomatoes and black olives in homage
to his father’s recipe, a decision that
earned him a coveted Hollywood
Handshake and reduced him to tears.
Family really is everything.
The Le Ricette di Giuliana book also
highlights another thing that makes
Italian baking so special — simplicity.
Mellifluous Italian titles such as Il Pane
fritto con la Marmellata di More are
testament to the fact that any phrase
can sound elegant in Italian, even if it’s
a recipe for stale white bread dipped in
custard, sandwiched with blackberry
jam and deep-fried in olive oil.
Baking like an Italian, then, is as
much about embracing an ethos as it
is about following a recipe. In the Bake
Off tent Dell’Anno never seemed to
over-complicate his recipes, instead
opting to use one or two key flavours
and letting them do the talking.
A huge number of Italian baking
recipes use minimal ingredients. Brutti
ma buoni, for instance, which
translates as “ugly but good”, are
biscuits made from just hazelnuts,
sugar and eggs, and produce a scented,
meringue-like cookie (Dell’Anno says
they “go very well with a glass of vin
santo or any sweet wine”).
So let’s raise a toast to a man who
provided a showcase for the best of
Italian baking. As Prue Leith said: he’s
a “classic, beautiful baker” who
inspired her to go home “to make lots
more Italian cakes.” As we all should.‘T
here are no words.”
When Giuseppe
Dell’Anno was
crowned Bake Off
winner this week,
he was stunned
into silence, even
as Paul Hollywood
tried to give him a bear hug, while
yelling in his ear, “You’ve won...
You’re the first Italian to do it!”
Speaking with him on the phone last
week, though — bakers are naturally
drawn to one another, particularly
those of us who are Bake Off alumni —
he was more garrulous as we chatted
about where winning the competition
might take him. And where he’d come
from — a vital part of his journey.
Born in Rome, his family is based
south of the capital in the coastal town
of Gaeta, near Naples. His wife’s
family, meanwhile, is from Puglia in
the southeast, and he lived in Tuscany
before moving to the UK and has now
relocated back to Milan for work.
Dell’Anno focused our attention on
the vast heritage of Italian baking, but
before you dust your work surfaces
with flour and try to emulate him, it’simportant to recognise that you’re not
just trying to bake the Italian way —
but the Italian ways.
The 20 regions of the country have
distinct geographies, economies and
an abundance of fine produce, all of
which affect their cuisine. Despite
each one proudly staking its claim
to a particular dish, the continuous
exchange of recipes and ingredients
throughout the country has led to
intense rivalry over whose is the better
version. For example, tiramisu, the
most famous Italian dessert, was
created in the city of Treviso, but
bakers from all over Italy have put
their own twist on it, replacing the
marsala wine with dark rum or port,
or switching up the traditional
savoiardi sponge biscuits with the
more festive panettone.
In the Bake Off semi-final
Dell’Anno made his own alteration,
introducing a layer of marsala-stewed
sultanas to the sponge and
mascarpone layers (his recipe can be
found on the Times website).
Another factor that made this year’s
final a little more poignant was the
revelation that in Italy, Dell’Anno’s
elderly father was having health
problems and watching his son bring
honour to the family name was clearly
a tonic for him. Dell’Anno said,
“Everything I’ve done to deserve thisGiuseppe’s father
watched his son
bring honour to
the family name Classic cantucci
Cantuccio is an old Italian word
that means “little place”, “nook’’
or “corner”, often used to
describe a piece of bread with a
lot of crust, like the corners cut
from the end of the loaf. The
nub — as I have always known
it — is my favourite part of
the loaf and I am always happy
to receive this often-discarded
bit as I love the chewy,
almost-burnt crust even
more than the crumb.
I love how evocative Italian
food names can be, and there
could not be a better way of
describing the shape of these
biscuits, which are slightly
angular and crust-heavy, in the
best possible way. A delicious
and sweet little nook in which
to seek solace.
A traditional biscuit from
Prato, in Tuscany — I assumed,
like so many iconic Italian
dolci, that they would be
difficult to make, but they aren’t
at all. Instead, they are very
straightforward. The flavour is
wonderfully sweet and pure,
the texture perfectly crisp, and
when eaten alongside a chilled
glass of vin santo they make a
very simple but delightful finish
to a meal. Of course, they alsomake a nicely nutty breakfast
(the almonds add some vague
suggestion of nutrition) with a
coffee (cappuccino for a
change).Makes 14Ingredients
100g blanched almonds
30g butter
2 eggs, plus 1 (beaten), to glaze
170g sugar
zest of 1 orange
1 tbsp marsala
280g type 00 or plain
(all-purpose) flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powderMethod
1 Preheat the oven to 170C/
gas 3.
2 Arrange the almonds over the
base of a baking sheet andpop them in the oven for
8-10 min until lightly toasted.
Set aside to cool.
3 Melt the butter in a small
saucepan or in the microwave.
4 Break the eggs into a mixing
bowl and whisk them well with
the sugar, orange zest and
marsala. Add the melted butter
and whisk to incorporate.
5 Add the flour, salt, baking
powder and toasted almonds
and mix together to form a
dough. Work the dough with
your hands to bring it together.
6 Turn the temperature up to
180C/gas 4, and shape the
dough into two logs about
5-6cm wide.
7 Put the logs on a baking sheet
lined with baking parchment.
Brush them with the beaten
egg to glaze.
8 Bake for 20 min, until just
golden.
9 Remove the biscuits and
allow to cool slightly, then cut
the logs at a 45-degree angle
into slices about 1-2cm wide.
10 Return the biscuits to the
oven for a further 15 min or
until crunchy and golden.
11 Remove and eat with sweet
wine or coffee.
La Vita e Dolce by Letitia
Clark (Hardie Grant, £26).
Photography: Charlotte BlandHow to bake like Giuseppe —
Tiramisu, focaccia, dolci... Bake Off’s
Italian champion mastered them all.
Former contestant Henry Bird on how
to emulate the Roman conqueror