Mantovana

Once two nuns from Mantua thanked a famous Prato pastry-maker by this recipe. But he was not satisfied and reproposed this cake in his own version, handing it down to nowadays.

Ingredients
- 250 gr of flour,
- 200 gr of butter,
- 200 gr of sugar,
- 4 egg yolks,
- 2 whole eggs,
- 1 packet of vanillin and orange peel - facultative,
- 1 packet of yeast,
- 80 gr of blanched almonds,
- 20 gr of pine nuts,
- powdered sugar

Directions
Melt the butter over hot water, then cool it. Whip the two whole eggs in a bowl and add the four egg yolks one at a time together with the sugar; made a well-kneaded dough, add the grated orange peel, the vanillin and the melted butter. At last add the sieved flour, the 2/3 of the almonds and the yeast.
Butter well a 24 cm round cake pan and sprinkle it with powdered sugar, put the dough onto the pan and then the remaining  blanched almonds and the pine nuts. Bake at 180°C for about 35 minutes. Sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar before serving.

Buon Appetito