Recommendations
Almond tart with Ramos Pinto Quinta Da Ervamoira 10 Years Old
On the plate lies a flourless cake of finely ground almonds, eggs and citrus zest, dusted with icing sugar. The tawny from Quinta de Ervamoira sets orange, apricot and a vanilla tone from the wood against it.
From the shelf
The bottle
This tawny comes from Quinta de Ervamoira, the Ramos Pinto estate in the Douro Superior, on the left bank where the Côa flows into the Douro. The wine is made from Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barroca and ages ten years in wood; it is a blend of an average of ten harvests. The house's specifications put the wine at 20 percent alcohol, with 106 grams of residual sugar per litre, a total acidity of 4.06 grams per litre and a pH of 3.62. The house describes an orange-red colour and a round, generous nose of orange, apricot and plum with vanilla and wood, and advises serving it cool but not ice-cold, between 14 and 18 degrees; the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto recommends 10 to 14 degrees for tawny. The bottle comes in 75 centilitres.
The combination
Why this works together
At its core this cake is almond, egg and citrus, and that matches almost one to one what the house describes for this wine: orange, apricot and vanilla from ten years in wood. The house itself also pairs the wine with desserts containing dried fruit, nuts, orange marmalade and egg, and this cake has all four. The almonds bring a lot of fat, and that fat is cleared by the acidity of 4.06 grams per litre and by the twenty percent alcohol, so the last bite tastes as clear as the first. Conversely, with 106 grams of residual sugar per litre the wine has enough sweetness to hold its own beside a cake that is itself quite sweet; a drier wine would come across as sour and bare here. Finally, the weight is comparable: a compact flourless cake is heavier than it looks, and so is the port.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 50 minutes, plus cooling
- Type dessert
What you need
- 125 g whole peeled almonds
- 3 large eggs, separated
- 125 g caster sugar
- the grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
- the zest of half an unwaxed orange
- half a teaspoon almond extract
- a pinch of salt
- 5 g butter and some flour for the tin
- icing sugar for dusting
How to make it
- Grease a 20 cm springform tin with butter, dust it with a little flour, turn the tin until the base and sides are covered and tap out the rest. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.
- Grind the almonds in a food processor with short pulses until fine; do not keep grinding, because then the oil is released and the mixture starts to clump.
- Beat the egg yolks with the granulated sugar with a mixer until light and creamy. Add the citrus zest, the almond extract and the salt.
- Fold the ground almonds in with a metal spoon.
- Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl to stiff peaks. Fold a third into the batter to loosen it, then carefully fold in the rest.
- Spoon the batter into the tin and bake the cake for twenty-five to thirty minutes, until the centre just feels firm under light pressure and the edges come away from the tin. Do not bake it longer than necessary, otherwise it will turn dry.
- Leave the cake to cool completely, turn it out onto a rack and flip it right side up. Dust it with icing sugar before serving.
In the glass
Serving
The house recommends serving this tawny cool but not ice-cold, between 14 and 18 degrees; the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto recommends 10 to 14 degrees for tawny. If you choose somewhere around twelve to fourteen degrees, you get a bit of both. A small tulip-shaped glass, filled to a third, keeps the orange and vanilla notes together. Decanting is not necessary. Once opened, a tawny with an age statement keeps for one to four months according to the institute, provided the bottle is closed and stored cool and dark.
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