The Times Magazine 35Eat!
BEN TISH
- 20g roasted walnuts
- 1 clove garlic
- 20ml red wine vinegar, to taste
- 20g roughly chopped parsley
- 20g picked dill
Lightly fry the bread in the olive
oil to crisp and brown it, then add
the walnuts, garlic, 1 tbsp water
and vinegar and reduce by half.
Add the herbs and season well.
LEMON AND ALMOND CAKE
WITH THYME
Serves 12
For the cake
- 200g soft unsalted butter,
plus extra for greasing - 200g caster sugar
- 200g ground almonds
- 100g fine polenta or cornmeal
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 3 large eggs
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 200g mascarpone, whisked,
to serve
For the syrup
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 6 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
- 125g icing sugar
- Line the base of a 23cm
springform cake tin with baking
parchment and grease its sides
lightly with butter. Heat the oven
to 160C (180C non-fan). - In a freestanding mixer, beat
the butter and sugar until pale.
Mix together the almonds,
polenta and baking powder and
beat some of this into the butter-
sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg,
then alternate dry ingredients
and eggs, beating all the while. - Finally, beat in the lemon zest.
Scrape the mixture into the
prepared tin and bake in the oven
for about 40 minutes. It will still
be a little soft, but a skewer
should come out clean. Remove
from the oven to a wire cooling
rack, but leave in the tin. - Make the syrup by boiling
together the lemon juice, thyme
and icing sugar in a small pan.
Prick the top of the cake all over
with a cake tester or toothpick,
pour the warm syrup over the
cake and leave to cool before
taking it out of its tin. Serve with
a spoonful of mascarpone.