Cocoa lentil cream
Finely blend 250 g of lentils. Heat the lentil purée to 50 °C. Take off the heat, add 40 g of honey and mix. Add 8 g of cocoa powder, mix again until completely mixed and place in the fridge.
Meanwhile, with the remaining 100 g of lentils and a little of their cooking water, 20 g of honey and 4 g of cocoa powder, prepare the lentils to use as decoration. Heat the lentils in a small pan with plenty of cooking water and reduce on a very low flame. Add the honey and the cocoa powder until the liquid part starts to coat the spoon. Only then, take off the heat and mixing again, start to cool, preventing the formation of a skin.
Creamy cow's milk ricotta
Place the milk, sugar and wheat starch on the heat, in a small pan. Keep the gelatine in cold water until soft, then squeeze it and add to the hot milk. Bring everything to the boil, whisking all the time to prevent the formation of lumps. Take the boiling cream off the heat, pour into a suitable container and cool quickly in a chiller.
When the cream is cold, pour it into the planetary mixer bowl and whisk on the second speed to obtain a smooth, creamy consistency, with no lumps.
Take the cow's milk ricotta, having drained off the whey, and cream in the planetary mixer – using the fine whisk on the second speed – for 3 minutes. Add the previously whisked milk cream, combine the mixture and make it smooth, mixing it on the second speed again for another 3 minutes. Collect the cream in a bowl and store it in the fridge.
Toasted almond cream
Melt the Romana di Noto toasted almond emulsion processed previously in a Pacojet. Sieve to eliminate any rough almond residue.
Place the almond milk obtained in a pan on the heat with the sugar and wheat starch and mix with the aid of a whisk until the mixture boils. Add the softened and squeezed gelatine and complete the cooking of the cream. Pour everything into a suitable container and cool quickly.
When the cream is cold, pour it into the planetary mixer bowl and whisk on the second speed to obtain a smooth, creamy consistency, with no lumps.
Take the fresh cream and whip until firm. Add the creams together and combine in the planetary mixer on speed one, finishing with a rubber spatula and incorporating the cocoa bean chips. Keep the almond cream in the fridge.
Romana di Noto almond "soffice"
Pour the yolks and whites with the sugar and salt into the planetary bowl. Mix on the third speed to obtain a fluffy, stable consistency. With the aid of a rubber spatula, incorporate the previously sieved ground almonds with gentle movements.
Pour the mixture into the moulds and cook in the oven at 165 °C. The time and temperatures for cooking and drying the sponge depend on the size of the mould chosen and the oven available. For a medium-sized plum cake mould, you will need to consider about 8 minutes for cooking at 165 °C and 15 minutes for drying at 155 °C.
Take out of the oven, remove the mould and place on a wire rack to cool quickly.
Black tea jelly
Heat the water to 85 °C and pour into a preheated teapot. Add the tea, stir and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Filter once with the aid of a classic tea strainer and then immediately afterwards with a piece of very clean, fine muslin previously dampened. Collect the tea in a suitably sized container.
Add the sugar and dissolve it, mixing gently. Then add the previously soaked and squeezed gelatine. Keep whisking, immersing the container in a bain-marie of water and ice. This will take the gelatine to 17 °C without forming lumps. Stop whisking when the gelatine starts to "pull". Pour it into a large container so that it cools and sets quickly. Then place it in the fridge.
Before serving the dessert, turn out the jelly onto a chopping board and cut it into cubes using a knife. Take the candied bergamot and chop it into tiny cubes.
Place 40 g of lentil cream at room temperature on a plate. Lay a slice of Romana almond sponge on it. Using an icing bag with a smooth nozzle, cover half the length of the slice of cake with the cow's milk ricotta cream, covering the other half with the almond cream using an icing bag once again.
Decorate with black tea jelly cubes and the finely chopped candied bergamot, which will be placed on the two creams. Lastly, scatter a couple of spoonfuls of lentils over the plate with the cocoa and honey sauce.
Serve at room temperature.
