BACK TO ALL RECIPES

Carla Leonardi’s Rice Pudding Cake and Orange Crema Inglese

Renee Erickson

BY Renee Erickson

PUBLISHED October 21, 2024

Carla Leonardi has been an inspiration for me for a long time: She founded Café Lago in 1990, and it has been a Seattle constant for elegant, delicious, and straightforward Italian food ever since.

 

The following may contain affiliate links for which we earn a small commission. Thank you for supporting us in this way!

When I first started working with food, it was exciting to see a woman working the pizza oven at a busy place like Lago—women in the kitchen were even rarer then than now, and she helped show me the path. Carla also has an infectious generosity—and sharing this recipe with me is just one example. This cake is just the kind of homey but special dessert I love the best: a rice pudding with a sliceable shape and an amber halo of caramel for a bit of lushness. I love each chilly mouthful of this dessert, and it is so good served with a blob of softly whipped cream and whatever juicy fruits are in season. If you have a little more time, you can also make orange crema inglese, the sweet custard sauce boosted with fancy orange essential oil, to make everything even more voluptuous. The other great thing about this dessert (including the crema) is that it is easiest made the day before serving, so you can scratch it off your list ahead of time.

Print

Carla Leonardi’s Rice Pudding Cake and Orange Crema Inglese

Prevent your screen from going dark

Log in, or become a member today.

Join in: enjoy 7 days free, plus 40% off your first year with access to 1,000+ highly vetted recipes from the How To Cook Everything series and beyond, essays from Mark, and original pieces from our contributors.

Join annually and save 40%
Log in to your account

GetBetterFasterHealthierSmarterTastier

in the Kitchen

Through our (more than a thousand, and growing) highly vetted recipes from the How to Cook Everything series, original food essays and reporting, thoughtful podcast conversations and introductions to new and responsible food products, we aim to showcase what’s possible, from farm to fork, and power a growing movement that encourages people to think about food not as a commodity, but as central to our health and happiness.

Start your free trial

We hope you join us on this journey. We’d love to have you as a part of the Bittman community. As a member, you'll have access to:

  • New recipes every week
  • 1000s of recipes from How to Cook Everything and beyond
  • First access to in-person events with Mark and Kate
  • Exclusive discounts from our favorite brands
  • Q&As with Mark and the team

 

Subscribe to our free newsletter

Join over 105,000 passionate individuals who receive our weekly emails. It’s 100% free and you can unsubscribe anytime. Plus, we’ll email you a sampling of what premium members receive on a weekly basis.