At Boulud Sud, pastry chef Ghaya Oliveira makes a version of cassata, the ornate Sicilian dessert with layers of sponge cake, sweetened ricotta, candied fruit, dark chocolate and marzipan. The easy recipe here is Grace Parisi’s own interpretation.
I made this for a large dinner event and they are so good and really quite quick and easy to make.....unless it's for 90!! I got 1# pound cakes at Costco. Other grocery stores had pound cakes that were only 12 ounces so they were difficult to slice into 2 1/2" rounds. They have a really nice presentation. But the chocolate garnish should just be a tad otherwise it ends up too chocolately. Also, the chocolate can be grated which would be easier than chopping hard chocolate because you get some "chocolate dust" and that is waste.
Guys. This is so ridiculously delicious and easy. I used the best ingredients I could find, whole milk ricotta, 70% cacoa chocolate, and I couldn’t find candied orange peel so I used the sweetened dried oranges from Trader Joes (which I find to be less sweet and more bitter). I also used a smaller cookie cutter so I could double the recipe. Ugh. SO DELICOUS AND EVERYONE LOVED IT! Not too sweet. Just the right size. A must try.
