As long as this is a riff on Italian cooking :-), I enclose a recipe
translated from an Italian cooking magazine (Pine Nut Cake) and one
from my friend Rosmarie who lives in Toscana.
I've made both and they are quite good.

/glee

Pine Nut Cake
Ingredients:
1/4 lb unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs (separated)
1-1/3 C sugar
½ C milk
2 ½ C flour
1 C pine nuts (divided)
rind of 1 lemon
1 package dry yeast
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a spring-form pan.
Scald milk; remove from heat, add butter to milk.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks until foamy. Beat in sugar.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold the whites
into the yolk/sugar mixture.
Mix yeast into flour. Fold flour, lemon and ½ of the nuts into the eggs.
Pour into prepared pan and smooth. Sprinkle remaining nuts over the cake.
Bake about 45 minutes.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

Tiramisu (Rosmarie Schulze)

1 kilo marscapone
10 egg yolks
10 TBSP sugar
Ladyfingers
Cocoa
Coffee (preferably espresso)

Whip yolks and sugar together until creamy.
Carefully add cheese. Be careful not to whip too long or you will get butter.

Butter a rectangular pan—can be 9x13 or a loafstyle pan. In general,
if the pan is smaller, the sides need to be taller–that is, you will
make more layers.

Dip the ladyfingers in coffee. Cover the bottom of the prepared pan.
Cover with a layer of the cheese mixture.

Repeat until you are out of ingredients. Dust top layer with Dutch
Process Cocoa. Chill before serving.

May be frozen. Take from freezer a little while before serving if you do this.

Variations:
Sprinkle rum or sherry over the dipped ladyfingers.
Chop chocolate bar and sprinkle over the bottom layer of ladyfingers.
Sprinkle shaved chocolate over the toplayer.

Also,the whole thing can be made in much smaller amounts. Just keep
proportions approximately the same.

It is a very forgiving recipe.

Enjoy.

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