The recipe for Lucanian cake with raw ham
Lucana cake, tradition and goodness
Basilicata chooses to propose a typical dish of the Easter period, when you need to prepare something tasty and tasty suitable for a trip to the countryside or to bring a tasty tasty dish to the table, suitable for an important aperitif, to a festively laid table.
In short, the Lucanian cake is a perfect excuse to sit around a table and chat. The different versions of the dish allow the cake to become the perfect compromise for a respectable appetizer or a particular dessert, in fact there is also a sweet version. It's difficult to choose, it's better to get to work and dedicate the time of doubt to tasting!
The Lucana cake recipe
To make the dish truly unique, it is recommended to choose to use quality raw materials, such as DOP and IGP sausages and cheeses from dairies that choose traditional production. In fact, thanks to these details, you can obtain a truly unique and rich cake in terms of flavor and taste.
Lucana Cake Ingredients
- 350 g of buffalo ricotta
- 200 g of 00 flour
- 150g of mozzarella
- 125 g of white sugar
- 120 g of caciocavallo
- 100 g of antibiotic-free Parma ham cut into cubes
- 80 g of butter at room temperature
- 25 g of pecorino cheese
- 3 egg yolks
- salt and black pepper to taste
Lucanian cake process
In a saucepan, combine 100g of white sugar, the butter at room temperature, two egg yolks and the flour. Mix until you obtain a soft, homogeneous and lump-free mixture. Place the dough formed into a loaf in the refrigerator for 30 minutes wrapped in transparent paper.
In the meantime, combine the ricotta with the grated caciocavallo, the antibiotic-free Parma ham , and the other ingredients, creating a rich and well-blended mixture. Season with salt and black pepper. Remove the dough ball from the refrigerator and divide it into two parts where one section corresponds to ⅓.
Use the larger part of the dough and spread it on a work surface, then create the base of a 24 cm baking pan. Pour the mixture into the pan to create an even layer, then cover with the remaining part of the dough after cutting it into strips.
Using a brush, brush the surface of the cake with the egg yolk. Preheat the oven to 150°C and once the temperature has been reached, bake for about an hour. When the pastry is golden the cake is ready, remove from the oven, let cool just enough to remove it from the pan and bring to the table.
Variants of the Lucanian cake and variations
The choice to propose the Lucanian cake with Parma ham is a reference to local tradition, however nothing prevents us from offering the dish with other Italian PGI cured meats or DOP sausages. The essential thing is to consider the combination of cured meat and cheese which, if poorly calibrated, risks making the result too salty or, on the contrary, tasteless.
The choice of "filling" is free and directly linked to your tastes, the variations are truly infinite. In the wake of this idea, the sweet version was born which eliminates pecorino and mozzarella and increases the quantity of ricotta combined with sugar - instead of pepper - and candied fruit - instead of cured meats.
In short, there are so many ideas. Whetting your appetite is easy, solving the dilemma is equally easy. As well as finding the right combination that starts with the filling of the cake and ends with a Barbera red wine with a full and full-bodied flavor capable of cleansing the palate after a "gentle" bite.
