Italian Food History: Italian Risorgimento and Mazzini’s Cake

I was inspired for this week’s sweet recipe by an interesting new exhibition, Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde, which has just opened its doors at the Tate Britain in London.  From a group of artists who rebelled against the establishment of their time to a group of activists for the Italian unification. So, it was born the Risorgimento Mazzini’s Almond Cake.

Mazzini’s Cake

Pre-Raphaelites works are astonishingly beautiful: although the group was founded just in the first half of the 19th century by a group of artists in England, who called themselves The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, they looked exquisitely classic. The group was led by the poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti among others. He belonged to the English liberal elite of his time and he was son of Gabriele Pasquale Rossetti, a poet himself. Dante’s father was forced to leave Sicily for the land of Albion because of his support of liberal causes, his attacks against the Monarchy and his bitter critique against the Vatican.

The Pre-Raphaelites also held revolutionary ideas and challenged the status quo of the time. Their radical style, inspired by the purity of early Renaissance painting, defied convention and provoked critics.

The Pre-Rapahelite were not the only ones to be inspired by Italy in the pre-romantic and romantic ages. Italy was seen as the land of beauty and place of the sublime, and many renowned authors, such as Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats all spent time there, bringing back to Britain an Italian influence.  However, in the 19th century the perception of Italy  among the English liberal society changed from a  somewhat idealistic image into a  genuine interest in its democratic ideas and patriotic sentiments. At the time, the boot-shaped peninsula, not yet the country we all recognise today, was living its Risorgimento (lit. ‘resurgence’).

A fascinating historical time, full of revolutions and rebels. At the time, the Italian liberal elite was fighting against the Austro-Hungarians and the Bourbons for the recognition of Italian national independence and citizens’ civil rights. Unity, even though not yet democracy, was eventually achieved in 1861, sadly after the loss of many lives. After centuries of waning cultural prestige, Italy was not just the “mausoleum” of Europe but the land of a new Renaissance.

During that period, lot of Italians expatriated because of political reasons and found refuge in London.  Among the other exiles, there was Giuseppe Mazzini, who played a pivotal role in the making of Italian national identity and had a fundamental influence on the formulation of the concept of modern democracy in Europe.

And in honour of the Italian Risorgimento, today’s recipe is Torta di Mazzini – Mazzini’s Cake.  I have to admit that I had never heard about this recipe before, but I’ve been lucky enough to find it. It is at the same time elegant, as the Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and simple. I really like to think that, apparently, it was one of Mazzini’s favourite cakes. And while busy doing the revolution, in exile in other countries, he found the time to write the recipe in a letter to his mum.

Mazzini’s Almond Cake

Ingredients (6/8 people)

• Puff pastry
• Around 100gr of almonds
• Same amount of sugar
• 1 lemon
• 2 eggs

Instructions

• Grind the almonds with the sugar
• Beat the yolks with the lemon juice and then add it to the almond and sugar mixture
• Whip the egg whites and then gently add them to the mix
• Greasy bottom and sides of a cake tin
• Line the cake tin with pastry, pour the mix in and sprinkle with sugar
• Bake for 35-40  minutes (until golden brown) at moderate heat

Finger liking good. More on Italian Risorgimento and Italian recipes here.