The cake with the unprintable name

About

This is one of Vicenza’s rare local foods that does not require hunting down a single village. Versions survive from Vicenza’s historic centre to the Berici Hills and the mountain town of Recoaro Terme, so you can seek it out on very different itineraries across Vicenza. Order it after a traditional Vicenza lunch and ask which recipe the kitchen uses, bread or corn flour, apples or figs, grappa or another family addition.

WHAT IS TORTA PUTANA?

Stale bread, milk, apples, raisins, pine nuts and a glass of grappa make one of Vicenza’s oldest family cakes. The difficult ingredient is the name.

Putana looks and sounds very close to the Italian word puttana, meaning prostitute. The resemblance has produced generations of jokes and several competing explanations. One account collected by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina links the name instead to putèi, the Veneto dialect word for children, because this dense bread cake was prepared as filling food for them. Another popular story involves a blackout in a Vicenza restaurant and an involuntary exclamation when the dessert nearly ended up on the floor. 

There is not one canonical Torta Putana recipe. Across Vicenza, old bread cakes acquired different names and whatever ingredients were available in the kitchen. Some versions begin with stale bread soaked in milk. Others use white and yellow corn flour. Apples, dried figs, raisins, walnuts, pine nuts, cinnamon and grappa appear in different combinations. Traditionally the mixture could be baked in terracotta beside the embers of the household fire.

WHERE TO EAT TORTA PUTANA

IN VICENZA’S HISTORIC CENTRE

Osteria Vicolo Santa Barbara

Stradella Santa Barbara 10, Vicenza
Phone +39 348 0372993

A small traditional osteria in the historic centre, a few minutes from Corso Palladio. Torta Putana continues to appear among the dishes associated with the restaurant, alongside bigoli and several versions of baccalà.

FOR A FIVE GENERATION COUNTRY TRATTORIA

Trattoria da Munaretto

Via Pederiva 24, Val Liona, Vicenza
Phone +39 0444 889513

A country trattoria in the Berici Hills run by the same family for five generations. The Accademia Italiana della Cucina has awarded it a Diploma di Buona Cucina and lists Torta Putana among its traditional Vicenza dishes, describing it rather wonderfully as the cake whose name cannot be said.

FOR A HISTORIC HILLSIDE TRATTORIA

Trattoria Amabile dal 1954

Contrà Carlotti 5, Monte San Lorenzo, Sovizzo, Vicenza
Phone +39 340 1226325
Phone +39 0444 552059

A country trattoria operating since 1954. Ristoratori di Vicenza lists Torta Putana among its traditional dishes, together with handmade pasta, guinea fowl, game and local recipes.

FOR TORTA PUTANA WITH GRAPPA CREAM

Hotel Ristorante Al Castello

Via Giacomo Zanella 13, Recoaro Terme, Vicenza
Phone +39 0445 780300

In Recoaro Terme, in the mountain area of western Vicenza below the Piccole Dolomiti, the current dessert menu explicitly lists Torta Putana con crema alla Grappa, made with dried bread, milk, raisins, apples and grappa.