Erica De Mane

Sara’s rosemary olive oil cake topped with sweetened mascarpone.

Recipe:

Polenta cake with Olive Oil, Moscato, and Rosemary

Dear Erica,

Have you ever come across a Venetian wine cake made with white wine, olive oil, rosemary, and almonds? It’s moist but not overly sweet. I’m dying to find a recipe. I tasted it in a little hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant somewhere in Brooklyn (Bensonhurst?) I went to the first time I visited New York City (almost 20 years ago)-taken there by an old family friend (now deceased)-don’t remember much about the meal but this-don’t know where the restaurant is/was or whether it still exists. You see my problem! (more…)

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Judith’s Italian West Virginian pastry.

Recipe:

Pitta ‘Mpigliata, ‘Tallie Style

Dear Erica,

I’ve just discovered your website and have learned so much in just a few minutes! What a wonderful find after a very fruitless search . . .

My great-grandmother was from Reggio-Calabria, and she passed on to us the practice of making a cake we knew only as ‘Tallie Cake (it was okay if to call them that!). These cakes were made only at Christmas. (more…)

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