Tasty cheese cake, typical of the central part of Italy for Easter.
These doses are enough to prepare more than one cheese cake. This is a traditional savoury cake for Easter in some regions of the central part of Italy, especially Umbria.
Put white flour in a big bowl and make a well in the center. Melt the already risen bread dough in a cup of warm water and pour it into the well. Mix it with a little quantity of flour and beat with your hand or with a whisk very vigorously. The dough must be soft. Sprinkle it with a little flour and cover the bowl with a napkin. Put the bowl in a warm place in order to let the dough double its volume.
Meanwhile put eggs, egg yolks, butter and lard cut into small pieces, olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese in a little saucepan; season to taste with salt and pepper and beat all the ingredients with a whisk for some minutes.
Cut ewe's or Gruyère cheese into very small pieces.
When dough is doubled, warm up the mixture with eggs and fat in a bain-marie for few minutes. Be careful not to warm up too much! The mixture must be lukewarm.
Add this mixture to the flour with dough and then crumbled fresh yeast and ewe's cheese too. Amalgamate all the ingredients with your hands quickly and then put the dough over a ligthly floured work surface. Knead your dough for about 15 minutes until smooth; add a little flour if necessary.
Oil one or more deep moulds. Transfer the dough or a portion of it in every mould; it must fill only half the mould. Let the dough rise in a warm place until it reaches the edges of the mould.
Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). Bake for about an hour or until the surface is golden.
Remove from the oven and let it cool; then turn out your Easter cheese cake on a large dish.
It's very tasty especially when it's cold.

Note

• - It's difficult to reduce fat in this recipe. The only thing we can do is to substitute butter with olive oil. But we can't modify the other ingredients: we could ruin its delicious taste. Besides Easter comes once a year!
• - You can serve it, sliced, with hard-boiled eggs and salami or with asparagus or chives omelettes. You can also serve it with second courses such as roasted lamb or pork meat instead of bread.

What's the right wine for " Easter cheese cake, Umbria-style " ?

Our suggestion is: Torgiano Rubesco (red wine from Umbria - Italy).