SBRISOLONA - ITALIAN CRUMBLY ALMOND TART

To make up for the Englishness of my last bakes I go back to Northern Italy with this one and it might be an Italian common feature but I’m also going back to hilarious names, see Panpapato.

Sbrisolona is dialect for ‘big crumbly thing’ and this thing is in fact quite big and very crumbly. It is also very delicious and it’s not the kind of tart that you slice and eat in a civilised way so unless you’re one of those people that eat an almond with a knife and fork you can break it into pieces as big as you like (or just jump to the next level and don’t even break it into pieces and eat the whole thing like an enormous biscuit. Don’t tell anyone I said that).

It's also perfect for nice weather. As in, if you eat three quarters of it over the sink you can go for a walk (crawl?) to Stoke Newington and you may even get tanned (if you're not me).

See? Happy days all around.

SBRISOLONA

100g (heaped ¾ cup) pastry flour
100g (heaped ¾ cup) maize flour
100g (1/3 cup) unrefined golden caster sugar
80g (1 cup) ground almonds

¼ teaspoon salt

110g (1/2 cup) margarine

zest of ½ lemon
20g (1/2 cup) flaked and/or whole almonds

Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F) and lightly grease or line with baking paper a 22cm/9” cake tin. In a bowl sift together pastry flour and maize flour, then add sugar, ground almonds and salt and mix until combined. Cut the margarine into small chunks then add to the mixture together with the lemon zest. Rub the margarine and flour together using your fingertips until the mixture is well combined but very crumbly – the texture of wet sand. Next transfer into the tin, crumbling the dough some more if necessary, and pressing it down very gently into an even layer. Top with the flaked/whole almonds and press them down gently. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on a rack then break into pieces and enjoy the crumbliness of this crumbly crumbly thing.