Torta Caprese

My last couple of days in Italy have been filled with lunches, coffees and meals with friends - saying goodbye has proved a wonderful reason to get together with all the wonderful people I have met these past weeks, to share good food, good wine and good memories. Saturday night was one of these occasions.

6.30pm seemed a surprisingly early time to have dinner in an Italian household, but on my arrival I soon knew why. After another wonderfully warm Italian welcome, I was probed with the question (more of a statement really) "ti piace cucinare" (you like cooking) My obvious response of "CI!" was followed by "Perfetto, seguimi" (Perfect, follow me) The rest of the evening flowed into dreamy hours of cooking, eating, laughing and learning. My wonderful host was originally from Naples and thus she wanted to teach me some traditional recipes, this mind blowing Torta Caprese being one of them.

After such a perfect evening, it was painfully difficult to drag myself away. However, my host kindly softened the blow by packing me off with a large slice of tort, insisting I absolutely must eat it for breakfast the next day - oh I'm going to miss Italy!

Having done a bit of research, most recipes I see online call for ground almonds. Whilst these would work absolutely fine, the use of freshly blitzed almonds gives, in my opinion, a much more brownie-like, moist texture - and the little chunks of imperfectly ground almonds supply amazing texture that you just wouldn't get from perfectly ground shop-bought almonds.

250g whole almonds, skin on
200g butter
110g caster sugar
125g dark chocolate
5 eggs
Pinch of salt
Icing sugar to serve

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees c.
• In a food mixer, blitz the almonds to form a rough powder (you don't want it completely smooth, a few tiny chunks of almonds add wonderful nuggets of texture).
• Remove the almonds, then finely blitz the chocolate and then combine with the almonds and salt.
• Whisk together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one by one with a tbsp. almond/chocolate mixture (whisking again after each addition).
• Pour into a lined, circular cake tin (about 23cm diameter) and cook for roughly an hour - until a skewer comes out with a few crumbs, not liquid (you do want it to be moist inside, much like a brownie).
• Cool in the tin for at least half an hour before removing. Dust with icing sugar and serve.