13. Rise up
Torta di mele. Apple cake. The recipe itself is basic. But the Italian!
Immergetele una accanto all’altra, ma dritte, ossia perpendicolarmente, writes Ada.
“Immerse (plunge!) them one next to the other, but straight, namely perpendicularly....“
Paul and I are reading through the recipe, word by word. It covers a mere third of a page, but we’ve been at it for over half an hour.
So which is it? Paul says. Straight, or perpendicular? And perpendicular to what?
I believe she means align the apple slices next to each other, I say, but not on their sides. Rather straight down, immersed into the dough. You know, perpendicular-ly.
A simple photo would have really helped out here.
The cake has just six ingredients. Apple slices of course, and the dough: butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and lievito artificiale which stumped Paul, but I knew that the artificial leavening could only be baking powder. Easy. But the amount -- 12 grams -- was more difficult. I have a gram scale for weighing small amounts, but still, I’d no way to accurately measure out a 12 gram pittance. Luckily I had a couple packets of German “backpulver.” Each small envelope contains enough leavening for 500 grams of flour. So I used just over ½ one of the packets for the recipe's 300 grams of flour. Worked wonderfully.
The pan is dusted curiously not with butter and flour, but with butter and fine breadcrumbs. The oven temperature is “moderate.” Huh. From my experience, cakes and cookies are baked in temperatures (Fahrenheit) ranging from 300 to 400. Most average 350. But this very low cake is to remain in the oven for an hour. I decided on 330, and stuck with it. It was a solid choice.
Alcune parole interessanti (some interesting words):
Due rossi d’uovo. Two reds of the eggs, meaning the yolks.
Le chiare. The clears, meaning the egg whites.
Montate in neve ben ferma. Whip into “firm snow.”
Soon after the cake was in the oven, the most incredible aroma filled the kitchen. The dough rose up and covered the apple slices, as the recipe said it would. (La torta nel forno crescerà e la pasta andrà a ricoprire le fettine di mele in modo che le racchiuderà completamente.)
The cake turned a gorgeous gold. (The photo for this entry.)
TO HONOR THE SUCCESS of the torta, I decided to rise up as well...to the grammar of the language.
This recipe became a study in a verb tense somewhat hidden in English. (More explained later.)
When a phrase begins with “I think that,” or “I believe that,” or “I imagine that,” for example, the verb following it is conjugated in the subjunctive tense. It's considered a 'mood' tense, used in sentences not describing objective facts. In Italian, this is il congiuntivo, and although it is active--and required--in Italian, even some native speakers (according to Paul) mistakenly use the simple present.
Here’s an example:
I hope [that] you can come on Saturday.
Spero che tu puoi venire sabato is the direct translation into Italian using the simple present tense of the verb potere (to be able to). It is the way I’ve always said this in Italian. It's wrong.
Spero che tu possa venire sabato is the correct subjunctive conjugation.
The forms are different for verbs ending in -ire, -are, and -ere, and there are unique conjugations for irregular verbs as well. There are also fixed expressions (involving key words, such as benché) that use the subjective...just because. An example: Benché mi piaccia il gelato, non ne voglio - Although I like ice cream, I don't want any.
It's crazily complex.
In English, the subjunctive form of the verb is mostly identical to the simple present, allowing for correct use without even knowing it. Nice...until you want to learn a foreign language and in addition to memorizing verb endings, you need to train yourself to be hyper aware of what you're saying and the tense that it demands.
With regular verbs, the exceptions in English occur in the third person present singular, where the -s ending is dropped in the subjunctive. For example: It is necessary that he see a psychiatrist (differing from the simple present, he sees). The verb 'to be' is irregular but it's easy; the present subjunctive form is always be. I demand that Donald J. Trump be removed from office. (It is the only verb to have a past subjunctive form...and it is always were. If he were qualified, or even sane, there might be other options.)
When a non-native English speaker masters the simple present, future, and past, he can feel good about his grasp of the language. We Americans are especially easy with our grammar.
But in Italian? The verb tenses are complex and numerous, the subjunctive being just one example. To learn the language well, one has to master them all.
Daunting. And discouraging. The apple cake, though, was sublime.
