When I turned 30 I toured around Italy in my camper van
cooking everywhere I went.
I did some amazing things which changed my life forever
and I'll never forget it.
Thanks to Food Tube I can now share these things with you guys and I'm really excited
So there I was living with the monks in a monastery when I got asked to cook for a very special guest.
The pope's right-hand man!
I had no idea what he'd be like, but there was loads of lovely fruit around, so I decided to make something
deliciously sweet.
So I'm doing an almond tart with cherries, an almond tart with peaches, and also you can do it with fig,
you can do it with apricots, you know what I mean? So it's
almond tarts of you can call it frangipane if you want.
It's one of those sort of fantastic recipes.
About 250 grams of almonds.
Instead of using like um plain flour
they use nuts finely ground to flour, so you've got nut flour.
So you've got 250 grams of almonds.
We're going to have 250 grams, this is a 500 gram pack.
of butter.
And you want about 250 grams of sugar.
And two eggs. And it's dead simple to remember. 250, 250, 250, 2 eggs,
That's essentially the base of your recipe.
And then the sort of seeds of one vanilla pod.
In with the butter and the sugar.
Orange zest. You don't have to do it, but I think it gives a what's that? And I love that what's that. You know?
It's nice to keep people thinking when they're eating stuff.
Give it a good old beating.
And, erm a little swig.
Of Vinvcento which the monks are sort of famous for using anyway.
Just about a couple of tablespoons.
And just stir it in. That'll kind of help the batter
and the sugar mix. It almost smells like sherry at Christmas, doesn't it?
You know this is how they used to make cakes before you had mixers you know.
Right, so now I've creamed this.
I'm going to go in with two eggs
That's what's going to bind the mixture. That's what
gonna give it a little bit of lift.
That's what's going to help it be really light.
What I'm going to do now is put in my almonds.
And just a tiny bit of flour. A good tablespoon. About 50 grams.
50-60 grams.
It just stops the oil from going out.
And of course the oil is a flavour as well. I want to keep the cake a cake you know.
And that is my almond tart.
That's the mix.
Right, so I've got two tart shells. They're baked blind which means they cook for ten minutes
And i'm now going to fill it with the frangipane
You want to sort of fill it up
just under the level because of course it will expand when cooking.
Then it will come out and then it will decrease again.
So you could cook them just as they are now and they will be delicious. Absolutely delicious.
I got some beautiful stoned cherries.
Just a little handful of sugar
and it will become syrup, and that syrup will become really shiny and beautiful when you cook it.
It's just nice and shiny. Can you see how lovely that is?
So a little handful
put the cherries out and about a bit. That's one. Almond cherries, wicked combo!
Right, lets do peaches.
The truth is, when you're cooking fruit, in a tart, in a cake
a little bit of sourness really works in your favour.
You know, sweet and sour, always is a genius little combo.
Right, little bit of sugar on the peaches.
You probably think I'm mad
thyme, peaches and almonds just seem to work.
Don't ask me why. Sometimes you just can't explain everything.
Little handful.
Not too much.
I'm gonna make 2 more. 4 tarts is enough, init?
It's a good sign.
For the love of God, please don't cook badly. Kiss, kiss, kiss.
And the big man and all the guests arrived
I was still crossing my fingers in the kitchen.
My beautiful tarts were just right,but I was still nervous.
I'd never cooked for the Vatican royalty before.
You're a good man, my arm was just about to fall off.
I just found out this table is one of the oldest things in the world.
I'm a bit worried it's going to fall down.
For me, my motivation was to cook these for monks you know, it's their batch you know.
So I'll be excited to hear what they think, but erm since then like the Pope's Secretary
which is like, I think it's his number two, so pretty. Pretty important bloke.
Is gonna come and have a little nibble.
Cherries. Would you like a little slice?
It's cooked. It's cooked really well actually.
It might be a little warm.
It's got nicely cooked pastry, so fingers crossed!
He said it was absolutely fantastic, beautiful. Must have been all that praying I did today!
If you like this recipe give us a thumbs up! Thank you very much. Bye!