Many religious and cultural traditions abound when it comes to Easter, especially in terms of festive food, and in Australia we can follow our own family habits or happily borrow from the diverse customs of our fellow countrymen. So, what to cook from this wealth of choices when the Easter Sunday family lunch is also a brother’s birthday celebration?
“Something simple,” he suggested. Something where we can all sit around the table without too much fuss and to-ing and fro-ing, I took him to mean. The solution was a table laden with Italian antipasti from which the vegetarian could pick and choose, the meat eating young nephew would be happy, the gourmets amongst us satisfied and the brother content not to have his sisters leave the table every 10 minutes to prepare something in the kitchen.
The hits of the (mostly gluten-free) spread were an Indian summer selection of tomatoes with basil, roasted beef and salsa verde with barbecued artichokes and some chargrilled eggplant rolled around buffalo mozzarella.
The next problem to solve was what dessert to serve for the birthday boy. Sticking to our family tradition for Easter would just result in a pile of chocolate eggs. But what about all those European Easter sweet things – the Italian ciambella, Russian paschka, British simnel and the Greek tsourekia just to name a few. I settled for another Italian influenced solution with an almond, ricotta and lemon cake, cooked this time with white polenta. Finished with a dusting of icing sugar and tiny, candy coated chocolate eggs, it too was delicious and appeared to satisfy the “something simple” theme of the day, and possibly even establishing a new family tradition.
Caren
ALMOND LEMON RICOTTA CAKE
Serves 10
450 gm unsalted butter
450 gm caster sugar
6 eggs
225 gm white polenta
450 gm unblanched almond meal
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons mild honey
450 gm fresh ricotta
Icing sugar for dusting
Mini sugar coated chocolate eggs
Pre-heat oven 160°C. Grease and line and 26cm cake tin with baking paper.
In an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat well to combine.
Fold in the polenta, almond meal and zest. Then stir in the juice and honey.
Fold in the ricotta until just mixed through. Do not over mix at this stage.
Pour the mix into the tin and bake for 1 hour or until a fine skewer comes out cleanly.
Cool in the tin.
Dust with icing sugar and decorate with eggs or other decorations to suit your occasion.
A finer texture and yellower cake can be achieved by using blanched almond meal and yellow polenta. Both versions are good. Also try another version with orange zest and a touch of cinnamon. This is a versatile cake that can be served on its own with cream, with poached fruits or a fruity syrup.
Keeps well for a few days in an airtight container.