Ingredients for a 22 cm diameter cake tin:250 g buckwheat flour100 g cornmeal (finely ground)150 g grated aged pecorino cheese3 eggs12.5 g brewer’s yeast170 ml milk2 tsp salt1 pinch cane sugar3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (to grease the cake tin)
Put the two types of flour in a bowl, add the sugar and mix thoroughly. Warm the milk in a small saucepan and dissolve the brewer’s yeast in it. Gradually pour it into the bowl with the flour, stirring until well amalgamated. Now add the eggs, one at a time, the salt and the grated pecorino, continuing to stir until the mixture is smooth. Put it into a carefully greased cake tin and leave to rise for 20 minutes, somewhere warm and humid. Then bake the cake in a preheated oven, at 160 °C, for 40 minutes.
If you like, with the same ingredients and procedure you can make a flatter cake, like a focaccia. To do so, put the dough in a 30 x 40 cm baking tin lined with greased baking paper, and bake it at 160 °C for 25-30 minutes. For the focaccia, Sabina – Antonio Lo Franco’s wife – uses a fresher type of pecorino, instead of the aged one; she cuts it in small cubes and mixes it into the dough. Baking it in the oven transforms the pieces of pecorino into soft, tasty “drops”.
The “Torta al Formaggio” is delicious as it is, without anything, but you can also serve it with cold cuts such as cured ham, salami or finocchiona, and/or relatively young cheeses (pecorino, Emmental) and… the list could go on and on, and it would always be delicious!
PS: If you use water instead of milk, and very mature pecorino, this savoury, gluten free cake will also be “just right” for those who are intolerant to lactose.