In April-May of 2005, I walked 300 miles across northern Spain from Burgos to Santiago de Compostela following the ancient Catholic pilgrim route known as the Camino. They say that there is no way to truly prepare for a walk like this - No way to know how your body, particularly your feet, will be able to handle the burden. By day five, I had terrible blisters. By day six, I had pains darting through my shins and ankles. By day eight, I was ready to quit and go home.
Pain. It’s the one constant on the Camino. But there is one way that pilgrims deal with it… They talk about what’s for dinner. At the end of every day of walking, pilgrims pair up or gather in groups to find a restaurant serving menú del día, a fixed price meal where each diner gets to choose an appetizer, entrée, and dessert from a short list of options. It was while walking the Camino that I first had a tarta de Santiago. A specialty of Galicia, it is basically an almond-flavored cake topped with powdered sugar and marked with the distinctive cross of Santiago.
I recently picked up a copy of 1080 Recipes by Simone and Ines Ortega. It’s a beautifully illustrated book, a standard in Spanish households for years that has been translated into English for the first time. When I came across the recipe for tarta de Santiago, it rekindled good thoughts of that 300 mile walkathon and the postre that kept me going forward. So I asked K to drag out the family heirloom Kitchenaid mixer that she has on permanent loan from her mom, and we got to work.
Although I love the book (and generally disagree with an unfavorable review by Lisa Abend at Slate.com,) it is pretty clear that the authors are not Galicians. The cake should really have a consistency somewhat akin to a pignoli cookie with an almost flourless cake-type density. Their recipe, I surmise, calls for far too much all purpose flour. Without any indication, the recipe also makes enough batter for two full tartas.
One tarta remains still half-eaten on the kitchen counter top. The other in the back of the freezer with little hope for a future.