The Recipes from Caterina and Francesco’s Letter
Translated by Ramon Garcia Castro

Pizza Dolce or Pasta Reale or Pane di Spania

Take a dozen fresh egg yolks and mix them with 12 (soup) spoons of sugar. Beat them very, very well for close to an hour. Separately, beat 12 egg whites for about an hour until they look like snow. Then mix the yolks with the whites, always beating. Then add 12 spoonfuls of fine cake flour little by little while you continue beating. Pour the mixture into an oiled or greased baking pan. Sprinkle flour thoroughly all around just like you sprinkle cheese on macaroni, so that the cake doesn’t stick to the pan. It’s also a good idea to put at the bottom of the pan a small piece of paper, for instance, a sheet of newspaper so that the cake doesn’t stick. The moment you pour the batter in the pan put it in the brick oven, indoor oven, or the stove. The fire must be very slow or else the cake will burn. When it becomes golden in the oven, then you have to cover it with a piece of paper. The (brick) oven or the indoor oven shouldn’t be opened very often. If it’s not cooked well, then pull it out by the edges of the paper, take it from the pan, and put it on the oven floor to finish baking. The heat should always be even.