Torta al cioccolato e pistacchi
About once a month we dine with a couple friends of ours. We host alternately and each time we try our best and most extravagant recipes to please each other: we always try something new, from a different country, a challenge for the palate and the cook's skills (me and the hubby of the other couple)! When we go to dine at their home we usually bring wine and dessert. Last time my friend looked at me and told me: "Mmmhh, you have a chocolate tooth, eh Sara?" I realized only then that I brought them something like 5 or 6 different chocolate cakes in a row!!!
Yeah, ok, I'm keen on chocolate... So??????? ;-D
As usually my favourite chocolate cakes come from few sources, one of which is Nigella Lawson's How to be a domestic goddess...
For the cake
150 g chocolate
150 g sugar
150 g pistachios
150 g soft butter
6 eggs, separated
Pinch of salt
For the icing
150 g chocolate
150 ml of cream
few drops of orange-flower water
Preheat the oven at 190° C.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave and let it cool. In a food processor, dust pistachios with 50 g of sugar. add the soft butter and another 50 g of sugar. Add the egg yolks one a the time, pulsing after each add. Add then the melted chocolate.
In a bowl, whisk the egg white with the salt until they produce soft peaks. Slowly add the rest of the sugar and keep whisking until it's shiny and thick.
Add 1/3 of the whites to the chocolate mixture and pulse. Add then the chocolate mixture to the whites and mix carefully but firmly. Add the batter in a 24 cm cake pan, lined with greaseproof paper and cook for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180° C and keep cooking for another 20-25 minutes, until the cake comes away from the sides.
Allow to cool.
Prepare the icing, melting the chocolate with the cream in the microwave. Add the drops of orange-flower water, let it cool in the fridge for 30 minutes. When it's cooled, begin to whisk it until you obtain a slightly thick glaze. Ice the cake and let it rest in the fridge until 30 minute before serving.
