Recipe Corner: Torta di Arancia ed Olio

Also known as the olive oil and orange cake. The recipe comes from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano cookbook. Yummy! What dawned on me after baking this dish the first time is that it is completely non-dairy. We fixed that, of course, by serving it with cut strawberries and whipped cream. It's also very tasty served plain with a nice hot cup o' tea (or tepid if that's your thing). Batali recommends serving it with fancy Greek yogurt, try the honey yogurt from these guys.

Ingredients:
6 medium oranges
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Oil a 9-inch round cake pan.

Zest all of the oranges and squeeze the juice from one orange. (We ended up squeezing the rest later so we could have fresh orange juice for the munchkin.) Combine the zest, juice, and olive oil in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs and salt until frothy and light, about 2 minutes. Slowly beat in the sugar, and continue to mix until pale and thick, about 2 more minutes.

Sift the flour and baking powder together, and gradually beat into the egg mixture. Fold in the citrus zest mixture just until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool to room temperature.