Ajo Blanco Andaluz, White Almond Gazpacho with Grapes Ajo blanco is the white soup of Andalusia, cold, silky and startlingly pale, made from almonds, bread, garlic and olive oil and finished with a few sweet green grapes. It needs no stove at all. What it demands instead is patience, clean ingredients and a very good blender. Serves 6 as a starter. Prep 30 minutes, soak 4 hours, chill 2 hours. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: cold soup, vegan. The Story Ajo blanco belongs to

Torta di San Biagio di Cavriana (Italian Chocolate Almond Tart) Torta di San Biagio is the tart Cavriana bakes for its patron saint, and it is darker and drier than almost anything else that comes out of a Mantovan oven. A cocoa pasta frolla holds a filling of ground almonds, chocolate and eggs, and the whole thing is built to be cut in thin wedges and eaten slowly rather than served warm with a spoon. The interesting part is not the filling but the shell. A cocoa frolla is a

Tortionata di Lodi (Italian Lodi Almond Cake) Tortionata is the cake Lodi breaks with its hands. It is one flat disc of almond, butter, sugar and flour, barely an inch high, baked until it is dry the whole way through and hard enough to sit in a tin for a fortnight without losing anything. No knife comes near it at the table. You crack it, take a piece and eat it standing up. The almond skin left in the grind is the reason it tastes of something other than sugar. Yield: 10 se