For my birthday and I wanted to make myself a cake that reminds me a lot, the colors and flavors of my land, Sicily.
I chose as ingredients: pistachio as the emblem of Sicily being the only Italian region to produce it, with its unique emerald green and fragrant; ricotta, it is one of the best agri-food products in Sicily, orange as a symbol of the sun, and cocoa cookies that represent the lava of Etna, the highest volcano in Europe that dominates all of Sicily with the its majestic and spectacular eruptions.
A pistachio mirror that contains a very soft pistachio mousse and a delicious ricotta cream laid on a crisp black bed of cocoa cookies.
I was inspired by the Pistachio cake by Maurizio Santin (Italian Chef), varying the recipe and inserting other recipes from other famous Italian Chefs like Loris Oss Emer.
Pistachio and Ricotta Cake
Ingredients
Crust
- 350 g cocoa cookies 12.5 oz
- 32 g granulated sugar 1.13 oz
- 75 g melted butter 2.65 oz
Ricotta Cream
- 200 g ricotta 7.05 oz
- 60 g powdered sugar 2.1 oz
- 200 g whipped cream 7.05 oz
Mousse Pistachio
- 135 g pistachio cream 4.76 oz
- 315 g granulated sugar 11.11 oz
- 330 g whipping cream 11.64 oz
- 9 g gelatin sheets 0.32 oz
- 6 eggs
Pistachio Glaze
- 108 g water 3.8 oz
- 106 g granulated sugar 3.74 oz
- 148 g glucose syrup 5.2 oz
- 11 g gelatin sheets 0.38 oz
- 85 g condensed milk 2.99 oz
- 20 g whipping cream 0.7 oz
- 20 g pistachio cream 0.7 oz
- 143 g white chocolate 5.04 oz
Instructions
Crust
- Combine cocoa cookies crumbs with sugar and butter, press onto the bottom of 24cm (9 inches) springform pan, and store in the fridge.
Ricotta Cream
- Sift the ricotta, add the sieved sugar.
- Combine with whipped cream to obtain a soft and silky cream.
- Pour the ricotta cream on the crust and place it into the fridge.
Mousse Pistachio
- Beat egg yolks with sugar for 10 minutes until creamy.
- In the meantime let the gelatine rehydrate in the cold water.
- After it has completely soaked, squeeze it with your hands and make it completely dissolve in a cup with a little bit of warm milk.
- Slowly drip the milk-gelatine mix into the egg cream.
- Add the pistachio cream, while continuing to mix it with a whisk.
- Whip the cream and the egg whites separately and add them to the pistachio cream, stir with gentle movements from the bottom to the top.
- Spread the pistachio mousse over the ricotta cream and put it in the freezer.
Pistachio Glaze
- Soak the gelatine sheets in icy water.
- Melt the white chocolate at 45°C (113°F).
- In a saucepan put water, sugar, and glucose and heat up to 103°C(217.4°F).
- Remove it from the heat, add the condensed milk, the hydrated squeezed gelatin, making sure that it is completely melted, and then the whipping cream.
- Pour over the melted white chocolate together with the pistachio cream and emulsifying everything with an immersion mixer, avoiding the incorporation of air bubbles and filtering.
- Leave it to rest in the fridge for 10-12 hours.
Assembling
- Heat the glaze to 35°C (95°F).
- Remove the frozen cake from the springform pan.
- Glaze the cake, allow it to cool, and decorate with sweetened dried orange slices.
- Wait for the cake to thaw in the fridge before tasting it.
Notes
ENJOY!
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