250 grams (about 8-4/5 ounces) powdered sugar
150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) Hungarian flour or extra fine flour
50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) sweet almonds mixed with a few bitter almonds, blanched
6 whole eggs, separated plus 1 extra egg yolk
lemon zest

Once you've blanched and thoroughly dried the almonds, crush them in a mortar with a tablespoon of the powdered sugar.

Mix with the flour until there are no lumps.

Put the rest of the sugar in a bowl with the egg yolks and lemon zest.

Blend with a wooden spoon for a quarter of an hour.

Add the flour and mix for another half hour.

Using a whisk, beat the egg whites in a different bowl.

When they have become stiff enough so that a silver two lire piece stands up in them, fold the egg whites into the other bowl and blend everything together very gently.

To bake, pour into a copper baking pan greased with butter and dusted with confectioners' sugar and flour.

Or you can use a strainer with a wooden ring, and cover the bottom with a sheet of paper.

The recipe in this entry was taken from "La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene manuale Pratico per le Famiglie" compilato da Pellegrino Artusi. The book was first published in 1891. Since then many Italian editions have been published. Olga Ragusa's selection of recipes from Pellegrino Artusi's famous cookbook, titled "The Italian Cook Book," can be found in its entirety at www.archive.org (It's free). The University of Toronto recently published a new English edition of Pellegrino Artusi's "Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well"; many of the recipes in this edition can be found at www.books.google.ca.... P.S. I tried Version II of Pellegrino Artusi's Bocca di Dama and found it to be exceptionally good. Before trying it out, I worried that the small amount of flour would be a hindrance, and the fact that there is more sugar than flour, might prove disastrous, but in fact, the recipe worked quite well. Basically, it's an almond-flavored sponge cake. It has the texture and feel of sponge cake, and as it has a high protein content, it also quite nutritious. A few years ago I tried to make Olga Ragusa's adaption of this cake and was unable to do it. The cake dropped as soon as I took it out of the oven. This time I decided to go with Version II of this recipe and possibly because of the large number of beaten egg whites it didn't drop at all. In fact, it turned out to be a rather tall cake. A few years I couldn't find "bitter almonds" anywhere in Montreal, but this time I had no problems finding them. Middle Eastern grocery shops (like "Akhavan") have ample supplies of bitter almonds and other hard-to-find ingredients. As I didn't try Version I of "Bocca di Dama" I can't say how it will turn out, but I strongly recommend "Version II" for those who like almond-flavored sponge cakes. Photo and personal comments: Mary Melfi.

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