Ricotta Cake with Fruit Compote

Cake: Lightly grease a 20cm spring form cake tin with softened butter and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Lightly toast the ground almonds. Put the ricotta, sugar, almonds, lemon zest and the egg yolks in a food processor and blend together. Tip into a large bowl. Beat the egg whites in another bowl until
they form stiff peaks. Using a large metal spoon, fold them into the ricotta mixture. Scrape the mixture into the cake tin and level the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden and fi rm to the touch.
The cake will rise quite high then deflate as it cools. Leave it to cool in the tin.

Compote: Split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Combine the sugar, cinnamon stick, vanilla pod and seeds, the Marsala and water in saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Tip into a bowl, cool, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

Assembly: Remove the cake from the tin, peel off the baking paper and place it on a serving plate. Spoon some of the fruit into the centre and serve the remaining fruit separately along with a bowl of mascarpone. Serves 8