Augusta, Sicily, hometown of Olivia’s grandmother.
Italian Recipe Exchange
Olivia’s Grandma’s Ricotta Cake
My friend Olivia recently sent me five recipes, four for cookies and one for cake, from her Sicilian grandmother’s recipe book. Her grandmother, now gone, was evidently always stingy with her recipes, not even sharing them with her own daughter, yet sometimes distributing them to neighbors instead. I’ve certainly seen that before. I remember meeting up with a group of people from my grandmother’s hometown in Puglia. When I inquired about a recipe book they had put together, and I knew for a fact it existed, they acted like they had no idea what I was talking about. They didn’t want me to get my greedy little hands on it. Southern Italians can be very strange and suspicious, attaching odd motives to innocent people, especially relatives.
At any rate, I’m glad to have Olivia’s family recipes now. I find them very interesting, for they illustrate the metamorphosis much Italian food went through when it made its way to this country. Many of the ingredients Italians relied on just didn’t exist here, so they made do in ingenious ways. You wonder why grape jelly shows up in so many Italian-American dishes, even meatballs? Well, maybe you’ve never wondered, but I’ll tell you. It was usually a stand-in for vino cotto, cooked down grape must, a common sweetener in Italy.
Olivia’s grandmother came from Augusta, Sicily, a small harbor town on the southeastern part of the island, about a half hour from Catania. Olivia visited the town last summer and commented in an e-mail to me that it was amazing “in a surreal kind of way.” She didn’t elaborate on this, but I think I know what she meant. A surreal feeling can set in when you feel a part of something but yet don’t truly feel a part of it. There’s more desire than reality in many of these Old World discovery trips for a lot of us. A similar mood came over me when I visited my grandmother’s hometown of Castelfranco in Miscano. I can truly say I never felt particularly inbred until I visited that town (with its six or seven family surnames listed in the local phone book).
Olivia’s recipes are for anise cookies, hazelnut biscotti, Sicilian date balls, something called Sicilian Chocolate Salty Balls (love that name, but oddly there’s no salt in the recipe), and a ricotta cake. Getting back to my mention of grape jelly, some of the ingredients in these recipes are very obviously stand-ins. I knew I had to make the ricotta cake first, since its inclusion of a box of yellow cake mix really intrigued me, a sort of Sicilian answer to the show Semi-Homemade. I imagined cake mix must have been one of grandma’s exciting discoveries when perusing the shelves of Boston supermarkets, marveling at all the packages and cans of unfamiliar but fascinating looking stuff—something like my Nanny’s obsession with frozen spinach. She must have decided at some point to augment her family ricotta cake recipe by including it. It’s hard to say what her thinking was, and Olivia doesn’t know, but I can tell you the cake is absolutely delicious and nothing like any ricotta cake I’ve ever had in Sicily.
The technique is interesting. You first put together the boxed cake mix batter. I chose Duncan Hines French vanilla, which seemed to have the least amount of artificial flavoring. You pour that into a cake pan. Then you whip ricotta up with eggs, sugar, and a little anise flavoring, and pour that on top. As the cake bakes, the ricotta falls to the bottom and the cake bakes up on top, producing a two layer affair with a lovely, moist texture. It had the taste of a traditional ricotta cake, but with the look of an American custard pie. An amazing feat of chemistry.
Three of the cookie recipes she gave me list Crisco or margarine as an ingredient, and I believe those are stand-ins for lard, which was and still is to a certain extent a staple of Sicilian baking, used in traditional cannoli shells, for instance. The Sicilian date balls contain two cups of Rice Krispies. They may just be a substitute for rice, but it’s hard to say.
I will tackle the Salty Balls at some point, but since they were a little more complicated, with many ingredients including Hershey’s dark cocoa, cloves, cinnamon, chocolate chips, walnuts, and Crisco, I thought I’d hold off on them for a while.
Olivia, I thank you so much for sharing these recipes with me and my readers. They’re a delicious history lesson to be sure.
Here’s the cake recipe from Granny’s collection. And I might add that this entire cake takes about 15 minutes to assemble. Great for a spur of the moment espresso or vin santo party.
Ricotta Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
2 pounds whole milk ricotta
¾ cup sugar
4 large eggs
¼ teaspoon anise oil (I used ¼ teaspoon anise extract mixed with ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a 13-by-9-inch cake pan. Prepare the cake mix according to the directions on the box, and pour it into the pan.
Now, in a large bowl, blend together the ricotta, sugar, eggs, and anise oil (or use the anise and vanilla extract substitution I chose) until well mixed. Pour this over the cake mix, but don’t mix it into the batter.
Bake for 1 hour. Let sit about 30 minutes before slicing so it can firm up a bit.
Erica De Mane 
this looks like a beauty!Sort of like the Ballestrino cheesecake I made at her hut.Maybe because of the cracked top.Thankyou Olivia.
Liti,
Thank Olivia and her Mom from wrestling these recipes from recalcitrant old granny.
The cake looks like the one you made at Ballestrino, but it’s actually much different in texture. More like a sponge cake with custard on the bottom. Really lovely.
Harky
I was so surprised to see this recipe. I first made this identical cake more than 25 years ago when I was asked to bake for a wedding shower. The recipe was given to me by my mother in law’s land lady. Whe was from Sicily and my mother in law was from Calabria.
I was surprised when she first explained the cake recipe to me because of the cake mix. And, I was also so surprised to read about the grape jelly. My mother in law was famous for her stuffed cookies and the filling was made with many ingredients including grape jelly.
I love your blog, your recipes, your stories about Italy and all things Italian. Grazie!!!
Hi Linda,
I’ll have to tell Olivia you made the same cake. Are you by any chance from the Boston area? I’m wondering if it was some time of Sicilian-American recipes invented up there (where Olivia’s family is from).
Glad you like my blog.
Ciao,
Erica
I am from Boston and I am half Sicilian and half Marchigiana. The recipe was given to me by a Sicilian. My mother in law was Calabrian. Thank you and I’ll keep reading and learning from your blog!
I first tasted ricotta cake on holiday in Sydney whilst visiting my daughter. I’ve never seen it anywhere in England and thought it was superb; very tasty and extremely light in texture. My daughter always buys it in an Italian suburb of Sydney and I can understand why it’s such a favourite. I intend to try this recipe here in Devon in the south west of England and I know all my friends will be clamouring for the recipe once they’ve tasted it. Thank you so much for this very interesting website.
Pauline,
I am English but living in Sydney. Ever since I met my Australian fiancee back in England he has raved about an Italian cake shop in Haberfield, which is famous for its ricotta cake. Having finally visited the shop, I have been searching for a similar recipe, which led me to this page! I wonder if it is the same place your daughter knows. Suddenly it seems like a very small world indeed.
Hello Natalie,
Yes, it was definitely Haberfield so I’ve no doubt it was the same coffee shop. Sadly, I haven’t yet found a recipe. Perhaps you can let me know if you find one.
Yes, it is a very small world. Glad someone else enjoyed the experience as much as me.
Pauline
Pauline,
This isn’t a traditional Southern Italian ricotta cheese cake, but rather an Italian-Americanized version using a cake mix as a base, something that would be unorthodox in Naples or Palermo. It seems to have originated in Boston. YOu’ll find many more classic recipes for this old style cake in Southern Italian cookbooks and on the web, so if you’re looking for something traditional, try that first. Although I have to say, this recipe is really delicious.
Dear Erica,
I haven’t tried this recipe yet as I would prefer not to use a bought cake mix unless I have to. If I try it, would any normal sponge cake mix do the trick? I’m not really familiar with bought mixes so I’m still looking for a traditional recipe.
Thanks for a great site, though.
Pauline
Pauline,
I’ve posted this recipe mainly for anthropological reasons, although for something made with a cake mix, it’s pretty damned delicious. But this is by no means a traditional Southern Italian torta di ricotta. Here’s a more classic recipe. I would include a pinch of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of orange flower water in the filling.
http://italianfood.about.com/library/rec/blr0559.htm
may I save this cake for a day or freeze.My ladies club will be cancelled because of the snow Thanks so much.
Gerry,
This cakes keeps for several days, especially if uncut. I’m not sure about freezing it, but I’d guess it wouldn’t work very well since it has a layer of ricotta cream on the bottom that might become grainy if frozen.
I wanted to try this and happened to have on-hand a box of King Arthur Lemon Buttermilk cake mix….so, I did not use anise flavoring at all—just a bit of vanilla in the ricotta mixture. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Hi! I make a Ricotta/anise cookie that the recipe was from my Italian mom using a cake mix! Everyone loves them. I plan on making this cake for Christmas Eve, however, am asking if it would still be as yummy using a bit of vanilla and almond instead of anise as I already have the cookies. I’m not very inventive, so if anyone has some ideas, please help!
Hi Nonna T,
Sure, vanilla and almond, or, my preference, vanilla and lemon zest, would be great. Just switch it up.
Merry Christmas.
Erica D
Thank you!!! I LOVE the idea of the vanilla and lemon zest!
I’ll post how it comes out!
Great. Merry Christmas, NonnaT.