This week's recipe (for Pete, Master Chef at Ristorante Lago di Sasso)

Limoncello Baba

Baba is called babka in Poland and in France. In French, the word baba meaning, "falling over or dizzy." These are small cakes made from yeast dough containing raisins or currants. They are baked in cylindrical molds and then soaked with sugar syrup usually flavored with rum (originally they were soaked in a sweet fortified wine). After these cakes were soaked in the wine sauce for a day, the dried fruits would fall out of them. It is believed to be a version of a kugelhopf, which was invented in Lemberg in the 1600s. It is also said that the cake was named after one of the heroes of Stanishias Leczinski's favorite book, "Ali Baba." The baba was brought to Paris, France by Stanisias Leczinski, the deposed king of Poland and the father-in-law of King Louis XV (1710–1774) of France. He brought along his Polish chef to prepare them, and he is reputed to have added raisins to the recipe. The dish was then simply called “baba.”