Italian Breakfast with Saffron and Ricotta Cake

The typical Italian breakfast is a strong espresso or cappuccino or latte and a sweet pastry, bread with Nutella or jam.When having breakfast in Italy remember 4 words:“latte” is milk, “caffè latte” is latte , “caffè “is an espresso ,and “bar” is the café, the coffee shop

At Toscana Mia we like having a traditional Italian breakfast with coffee, tea, and enjoy typical Italian cakes such as a light ricotta cheese and saffron cake with an unexpected, surprising taste.

Saffron is such a versatile spice perfect in many Italian dishes,in small quantities because of its strong flavour and colour.Grounded saffron is mixed directly with the other ingredients, otherwise, squeeze an orange/lemon, warm the juice slightly and dissolve the saffron in it before mixing to the dough.

Torta di Ricotta e Zafferano

300g ricotta cheese 1 packet of grounded saffron 250g sugar 250g flour 1 lemon 16 gr. baking powder 0,5 gr. Vanilla powder 1 pinch of salt 3 eggs

Decoration: Icing sugar

Grate the lemon Microplane zester.Place the ricotta in a bowl with the saffron, and the sugar. Work them together until you have a cream.Add flour, zest ,vanilla powder , salt, egg yolks and mix well.

Whisk the egg whites stiffly and then gently fold them into the prepared mixture.
Pour it into a cake tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 40-45 minutes.( 30 minutes in convection oven )
Remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool.
Transfer it to a serving plate, dust with icing sugar .