My father looks frail. Pale and thinner than I have ever seen him, the once shapely football player’s legs now undefined and shaky under him. He has finished his six weeks of radiotherapy; farewelled the clinic staff with a large box of chocolates. But exposure to the rays emitted from a machine Dad came to call the Pterodactyl, coupled with the effects of a drug regime, have ravaged his 70-year-old body. Until two months ago, he looked like a 50-year-old. Women watched after him admiringly as he strode off down the beach for his daily two-hour walks through the coastal national park near his home. He could, he told me proudly yesterday, climb the punishing 225 steps up to the park’s headland in four minutes, twenty seconds. We climbed them yesterday, he and I, very much more slowly. He took the lead, determined to reach the top; I followed, outrageously unfit, legs screaming, determined not to be left in his extraordinary wake. At the top, gasping for breath, a view of an unpolluted, deserted white beach that stretches for miles, and the finest sparkling Pacific Ocean with a limitless horizon. I just hope Dad saw it.
Amid his side effects—the tremors, the dizziness, the insomnia and depression and lack of concentration, the awful diarrhoea—there may be one small consolation. Dad, who has spent an abstemious lifetime watching his diet and his shifting waistline, for now can eat as much as he wants, of whatever he wants. Oh, did I mention that other side effect? Appetite loss. Still, he managed to devour two of these little tortes that I made during my visit home, which are the quickest, simplest little treasures to make.
They’re basically self-saucing puddings, given a bit of zing by a chilli (hot pepper) flavoured vincotto (boiled grape must) from the boutique Italian company Gianni Calogiuri. I halved the recipe below without any side effects; next time I’d be inclined to add a little more vincotto. And I’m sure the recipe would work just as beautifully without the vincotto.
If you want to make them ahead of serving, pour your mixture into the greased dishes, cover with cling film, and refrigerate until you need them. They should keep for at least a couple of days.
Warm Chocolate Torte with Vincotto al Peperoncino
(Tortino al cioccolato caldo con Vincotto al Peperoncino)
Serves 10
300g dark 35% chocolate
300g butter
150g plain flour (all-purpose flour)
150g caster sugar
8 eggs
25g Vincotto al Peperoncino*
Cream or crème Anglaise to serve
Preheat oven to 165°C. Lightly grease individual foil ramekin dishes** with butter.
Melt chocolate and butter in a double saucepan. Sift flour into a bowl and stir in sugar. Lightly whisk eggs and whisk into flour and sugar mixture.
Add the melted chocolate and the Vincotto to the bowl and use a large stainless steel spoon to fold the mixture together.
Pour into the ramekins, stopping when the mixture is about 2cm from the top to allow for rising, and bake for 10 minutes. After removing the tortes from the oven, allow them to cool for 5-10 minutes, then gently cut or tear away the casings. Serve with cream or crème Anglaise.
* The Gianni Calogiuri range is available at good foodstores; in Melbourne, at Enoteca Sileno, where I watched the Calogiuri chefs demonstrate the tortes and other vincotto recipes.
** I used disposable Novacart pastry dishes, which were terrific.
