Italian almond, rice and amaretto cake (Torta di riso)

A scrumptious and slightly boozy classic Italian desert. Delicious on its own, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Ideally, cook it the day before serving it.

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Add the milk, rice and lemon peel to a saucepan, stir and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 45min, stirring often.

Step 2

Take off the heat, remove the lemon peel, add the sugar, stirr until it’s diluted, and let the mix cool down.

Step 3

Grind the peeled almonds in a food processor or mixer and put them in a large bowl

Step 4

Grind the amaretti biscuits and candied lemon peel in the food processor or mixer, add it to the bowl with the almonds and stir it all together until you get a homogeneous mix.

Step 5

Add the milk and rice mix to the bowl and stirr it well

Step 6

Add the 100g of amaretto to the bowl and stir it into the mix

Step 7

Preheat fan oven to 150 C

Step 8

While the oven heats up, crack the eggs into a medium bowl, add vanilla essence and a pinch of salt and whisk well

Step 9

Add the beaten eggs to the mix in the large bowl and mix well

Step 10

Line a large oven proof dish or roasting tin (I used a 25cm x 30 cm tin) with parchment paper and pour in the mix

Step 11

Bake on fan oven at 150 C (300 F) for 70 to 90 minutes. Use colour and toothpick test to check it’s done.

Step 12

Take out of the oven, and while still warm spoon and spread 3 tbsp amaretto over the surface, and let it soak in and cool down a bit.

Step 13

Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (ideally overnight).

Step 14

Take out of the fridge, slice into 12 equal rectangles and serve on its own, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!