Rumour has it that he put the tart on the menu to jazz up the slightly monotone dessert list, and that the tart became an instant hit, so much so that it was never taken off the menu ever since.īe that as it may, the combination of pastry, custard and pine nuts seems to have been around since much before Samorini at least since the late 1800s, as Artusi mentions he tasted such pasticcio (hash) in one of his travels across the peninsula.Īnd it is precisely by Artusi that my recipe for Torta della Nonna is inspired.

The most accredited version states that it was a Florentine chef who first coded it – Guido Samorini of restaurant San Lorenzo. The origin is actually contentious, and is still reason for much debate between the provinces of Arezzo and Florence, each claiming this tart as their own brainchild. Rather, it appears to come from the kitchen of a restaurant.

The top is studded with crunchy pine nuts and dusted with icing sugar, and no variants on this theme have ever gained much momentum.Īlthough the name might suggest otherwise, Torta della Nonna (Grandma's cake) isn’t a homestead creation it wasn’t, in other words, invented by some pastry-savvy grandmother somewhere in the hills of Chianti. Its success likely lies in its simplicity: it consists of nothing more than two sheets of slightly leavened sugar pastry enclosing a creamy heart of lemon-scented custard. A classic, Tuscan-born tart, Torta della Nonna has to be one of the most widespread and well-known Italian desserts.

Lemon custard tart recipe