Italian Rice Cake

09/26/2024

Today we bring you this recipe, not widely known abroad but a staple of Emilian cuisine: the Italian Rice Cake. It’s a dessert that’s not overly sweet, made from simple yet hearty ingredients. The origins of this recipe are rooted in the rural world, and its spread in Emilia is attributed to the “mondine”, seasonal workers who traveled to the Vercelli area each year to harvest rice, often receiving part of the crop as payment.

The rice cake is also known as the “Torta degli Addobbi” because it was traditionally prepared for the Festa degli Addobbi, a celebration established in 1470 to mark the ten-year anniversary of a parish. During the festival, it was customary to decorate (“addobbare”) windows with colorful drapes, and parishioners would open their homes to welcome neighbors and friends. On this occasion, the rice cake was served cut into small diamond-shaped pieces, each skewered with a toothpick.

We asked our Cesarina Rosa from Bologna to share her recipe for preparing her delicious Italian Rice cake, an easy-to-make dessert that you can enjoy with your beloved ones.

Italian Rice Cake

Traditional Emilian dessert, incredibly soft, made with milk and rice

DifficultyEasy

Preparation time15m

Cooking time1h 10m

€

CostLow

Ingredients

1 liter of milk
The peel of one lemon
125 g of originario rice
125 g of candied citron
125 g of peeled almonds
200 g of granulated sugar
100 g of vanilla sugar
100 g of amaretti cookies
6 eggs
Bitter almond liqueur

Method

Chop the almonds, amaretti, and citron, keeping each ingredient separate.
Boil the milk with the lemon peel; once it reaches boiling point, remove the lemon peel, add the rice, and cook for 30 minutes.
A few minutes before the end of cooking, add the sugar, almonds, and amaretti.
Remove from the heat, then add the eggs and citron, mixing everything well.
Butter and coat a rectangular baking pan with breadcrumbs, then pour the mixture into the pan.
Bake at 200°C for 30-40 minutes until the cake turns dark in color.
Once the cake has cooled, generously soak it with bitter almond liqueur (or Amaretto liqueur diluted with water).