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Rachel Roddy’s recipe for chocolate, almond and cherry cake | A kitchen in Rome
Luxurious yet simple, this combination of flavours is inspired by the enterprising, artistic spirit of the Fabbri family
Gennaro Fabbri had a plan. He would stop selling chairs and find a small shop with a vinaia (wine cellar) that could be converted into a distillery for the production of liquori and syrups. He found what he was looking for in the main piazza of a small town called Portomaggiore in the province of Ferrara, in Emilia-Romagna. Helped by a loan from his brother, Antonio, Gennaro made the necessary alterations to the old grocery shop and gave it a new name, Premiata Distilleria G Fabbri. The year was 1905.
One of the first products was a liqueur called 1° Maggio, named for 1 May, Labour Day. The yellow liquer came in a flask-like bottle labelled with an picture of two workers shaking hands, beside them a sickle and a hammer, and behind them the rising sun. 1° Maggio was a well-priced, everyman’s drink celebrating the dawn of a new century. It was followed by an amaro called Carducci and, soon after that, Virov, a yolk-yellow zabaione-like drink made from egg and marsala. Success was swift and, by the early 1920s, Gennaro had taken on a small factory in Bologna.
UK readers: click to buy these ingredients from Ocado
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