Recipe: Zuppa Papale or Torta Papale

The zuppa papale ricetta is one of the myriad little cakes that get lost in the wonderful world of Sicilian pastry.   Everyone knows Cassata Cannoli, and after the British Bake Off, our recipe for Setteveli was downloaded  innumerable times. But I stumbled across the zuppa papale ricetta, an unheard of cake in our first venture into eastern Sicily.  Basically it is a cocoa Pan Di Spagna (with potato starch) with an equally hight layer of sheeps milk ricotta. It is then drizzled with a chocolate sauce and occassionally with toasted slivered Sicilian almonds and to gild the lily, a small shower of powdered sugar. So if you cant find sheep’s milk ricotta, try making your own from this winning recipe from our 2019 Horses Doovers Contest. I tried with cow’s milk ricotta, which was very watery. When I drained it,  the remaining ricotta was too heavy and did not have the smoothness needed.  That’s why the ricotta made at home with milk and cream was superior.   You must trim the cake and you can brush the trimmed layer with a one-to- one sugar syrup with some maraschino liqueur added to it.