A crispy crust surrounding a soft, melting chocolate heart. Originally from Ferrara, this traditional dessert is widespread and loved throughout Emilia. The love story between King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Elena Petrovich from Montenegro, his bride, is a story about tenderness. The two married on October 24, 1896. They met at Teatro La Fenice in Venice at the International Art Exhibition. It was love at first sight. The queen became known as the bride with a tender heart, and the cake was also called Torta Montenegrin or Torta Regina del Montenegro in her honor.
The recipe we present here is that of Maria Elisabetta Guerzoni, a former professor of Food Microbiology at the University of Bologna who is passionate about history, as well as the mother of Angelica Zanardi, the owner of Fienile Fluò – who proposes it at the end of a romantic menu for Valentine’s Day: a harp concert makes the evening’s enchantment unforgettable. At this country hotel created out of a restored barn in the hills outside of Bologna, you can taste cuisine that is attentive to seasonality and the products of the local area, always looking for quality raw, organic and km 0 ingredients.
The good food comes in a setting of comfort and guaranteed fun with a calendar full of events: concerts, shows, workshops and initiatives for children.
Torta Tenerina: the recipe
Ingredients
17 1/2 oz. high-quality dark chocolate, 1 cup butter, 7/8 cup sugar, 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 1/2 tbsp. milk, 6 eggs, 2 tbsp. Italian 00 flour for cakes, powdered sugar for decoration
Instructions
Melt the dark chocolate with the butter in a bain-marie. Vigorously mix the egg yolks (set aside the egg whites) in a bowl with the sugar and cocoa powder, then incorporate the milk to obtain a smooth and homogeneous cream. Combine it with melted chocolate and butter. Add the tablespoons of sifted flour. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and add them to the cream. Grease a cake pan 9-10 inches in diameter, lightly flour it and pour the mixture in. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F for about 20-25 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the cake, making sure to remove it from the oven when the first surface cracks form. Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.