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Pat Greenfield
Wednesday, March 21, 2001     Page: 1D

I read cookbooks like other people read novels: quickly and one after
another.
   
I just can’t get enough of them and can’t resist buying more. In addition
to books, my kitchen bookshelves annually expand, exponentially, with the
addition of another 12 months’ issue of every cooking magazine there is. The
books and magazines allow me to visit other restaurants, towns and countries
and see what other cooks are up to. I lose myself in the parties,
presentations and ingredients.
    A little carried away you say? Well, that’s what a novel is supposed to do,
suspend the present and provide an escape from the mundane.
   
So, as I was traveling through Italy a few weeks ago with Marcella Hazan’s
“Marella Cucina” looking for nothing in particular, I came across the recipe
for this orange cake from Ancona, a town in the Marches area. The cake is very
simple to make and contains an exotic ingredient: blood oranges. How
intriguing and inviting.
   
And imagine my delight when I went to the supermarket and there they were
blood oranges. I have to say, the local markets have come a long way in the
last few years in stocking various unusual produce.
   
Blood oranges are accurately named. While their skin is the traditional
bright orange color, shaded with crimson, their flesh it far from orange. It’s
dramatically red, almost black, and produces a beautiful scarlet juice when
squeezed. Blood oranges are grown principally in Sicily and Spain, but
California orchards have been successful growing the variety and stocking
American markets from December through April every year.
   
The key to the success of this cake is using a fragrant variety of orange
for the grated rind in the recipe; and, even though blood oranges have a
deliciously flavorful juice, their rind is not as fragrant as other varieties,
such as temples, tangelos or even tangerines. (Do not use the omnipresent
navel orange. It’s rind is tasteless.)
   
You must try this cake. Your kitchen will be filled with the luscious scent
of citrus and orange blossoms. The finished cake, right out of the oven, is
drenched with bright red juice which soaks into the cake giving it a blushed
and mottled appearance when sliced. For such a simple cake, the flavor nuances
are amazing: the blood orange juice is sweet, with a hint of raspberry, and
the addition of Pernod adds another mysterious, subtle note. Marcella remarks
that she prefers ouzo, but I tried it several different ways and I definitely
like the Pernod better.
   
The finished cake is rather homespun looking so for a recent dinner party,
I served thin slices of this cake with peach sorbet, garnished it with
raspberries and fresh mint leaves and sprinkled the whole dish with
confectionery sugar.
   
Although the cake should always be served at room temperature, it can be
refrigerated for up to a week if it is tightly covered. It is very light and
flavorful and the perfect cake to welcome spring back into our lives.
   

   
Ancona Orange Cake
   
Adapted from Marcella Hazan Marcella Cucina
   

   

   
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
   
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
   
1 cup sugar
   
2 tablespoons Pernod or ouzo
   
Grated rind from three oranges: temple, tangelos, tangerines, or some other
fragrant variety (though not navel)
   
3 eggs
   
1 tablespoon milk
   
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
   
2 cups blood orange juice (about eight oranges)
   
4 tablespoons sugar
   
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thickly smear a tube pan with butter.
   
2. Put flour, eggs, grated orange peel, four tablespoons softened butter,
sugar and liqueur in the bowl of a food processor and run until all
ingredients are evenly mixed.
   
3. Add the milk and baking powder, and process again to incorporate into
the mixture.
   
4. Put the cake mixture in the pan and place the pan in the upper level
oven. Bake for 45 minutes or slightly longer, until the top of the cake
becomes colored a rich gold. Meanwhile, mix the orange juice and sugar and set
it aside.
   
5. When the cake is done, remove it from the pan and position it in the
center of a platter that has a slightly raised rim.
   
6. While the cake is still warm, poke holes in it using a chop stick or
skewer and slowly pour the orange juice over the cake. There may be extra
pooled on the platter but the cake will absorb it as it sits.
   
NOTES: You can keep the cake for up to a week in the refrigerator, fully
covered with plastic. Always serve this cake at room temperature. Serve thin
slices of this cake with a scoop of peach sorbet.
   
Food Columnist Pat Greenfield’s column is published every other Wednesday.
She is owner and/or operator of restaurants in Exeter, Kingston and Plains
Township. Write to her in care of the Arts & Leisure Team, Times Leader, 15 N.
Main St., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711-0250.