Rachel Roddy’s recipe for torta tenerina, or rich chocolate cake | Food

The note by Elizabeth David is helpful here: “This cake can also be eaten like a pudding” for its soft-dense-velvet-texture. But I am jumping ahead: this week’s column started in Ferrara, a city in the wetlands of the Po delta in the north-eastern corner of Emilia-Romagna. Half medieval lanes and half green avenues and parks, Ferrara is home to one of Europe’s most imposing red-brick castles, one that provides a home to an annual journalism festival run by the magazine Internazionale. Ferrara is also known for a cake. In fact, it was after a discussion about translation and fact-checking with the Italian writer Domenico Starnone and the translator Ann Goldstein that I first ate a wedge of chocolate, butter, egg, sugar and flour torta tenerina.

Having just mentioned fact-checking, I am now going to side-step the origin stories. The name, however, more or less translates as “little tender one”, although that “little” refers more to the fact that it is a bit tender, rather than being on the small side. Especially because tenerina recipes from Ferrara call for tins ranging from 24-26cm in size, which produce slender cakes that are gently cracked on top and tacolenta (sticky) within; in fact, another name for the cake is torta tacolenta.

If the size of the tin is reduced to 16cm for the same quantity of ingredients, the cake is just shy of 3cm deep and no longer sticky, but rather a soft-dense-velvet texture. Those proportions also make the recipe more or less identical to Elizabeth David’s gâteau au chocolat from her 1960 book French Provincial Cooking, which is not to be confused with her extremely well-known flourless chocolate and almond cake (gâteau au chocolat et aux amandes). No, the gateau is the recipe before that, which includes just two tablespoons of plain flour and is the cake she notes can also be eaten like a pudding because of its tender texture – so long as its cook doesn’t do what I did the other week, forget to set a timer and end up overcooking it!

A timer is to forgetful cooks what a microwave is to melting chocolate: that is, invaluable. Otherwise, use a bain-marie or bowl balanced over (but not touching) simmering water in a pan. It is an important step to separate the eggs, so they can be added in two stages. First the yolks beaten with the sugar; then the whites beaten to stiff peaks and folded in gently to protect the air that’s been so carefully incorporated. Regarding the flour, it can be substituted for ground almonds, hazelnuts or pine nuts, all of which produce an almost identical texture, alongside lovely flavour; they also turn the cake into what could be called a torta caprese.

Gorgeous, useful, immensely likable, this cake is at its most cake-pudding-like and its texture most soft-dense-velvet one to three hours after coming out of the oven. It can also be left out, covered with a dome or a loose tent of tinfoil. It is also wonderful after a night in the fridge, during which time it becomes more solid, and more fudgy than velvet. Whatever the consistency, dust the surface heavily with icing sugar and serve with a spoonful of thick, cold cream.

Rich chocolate cake inspired by torta tenerina

Makes 1 x 22 cm cake

200g dark chocolate, broken up

150g butter, cut into cubes

4 eggs

150g caster sugar

2 heaped tbsp plain flour, or 2 tbsp ground almonds

1 pinch fine salt

Icing sugar, for dusting

Melt the chocolate in a bowl balanced over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water (or melt it in bursts in a microwave). Take the pan off the heat, add the butter and stir until that, too, has melted.

Separate the eggs, and put the whites in a clean bowl. Drop the yolks directly into the chocolate and butter bowl, add the sugar, flour and salt, and beat very well. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, then gently fold them into the eggy chocolate mixture.

Scrape the batter into a lined 16cm tin, then bake in the middle of a 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 oven for 25 minutes, until the top is set but still has a visible wobble at the centre. Remove, leave to cool for 30 minutes, then carefully lift on to a rack to cool completely. Serve dusted with icing sugar.