Torte aux Carottes de Pâque

Name: Torte aux Carottes de Pâque
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients: Vegetable oil or spray for greasing the pan; 7 large eggs; 1 cup sugar; 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon; 5 large carrots, peeled and grated (about 2 1/2 cups grated); 1 1/2 cups ground hazelnuts or almonds

December 9, 2011

I have always felt that cooking is the time to tell stories. In the sixties, when I learned to make this Passover carrot torte from Ruth Moos in Annecy, we talked about lots of things, but never about World War II. When I cook this torte now, after her death, I tell the story of how brave she was during the occupation. Not only did she help so many Jews trying to flee, but she had a narrow escape herself once. When the Annecy police warned the Mooses that the Gestapo was looking for her husband, Rudi, he went underground, hiding between the pork sausages and hams in a butcher’s smokehouse. Looking for him, the Gestapo went to the hotel where the Mooses had been hiding in nearby Talloires. Ruth, walking outside for a quick breath of fresh air while her tiny daughter was sleeping upstairs, turned around to see the Gestapo agents entering the lobby. In order to sneak past the guards, she grabbed some sheets from a chambermaid and, posing as a maid herself, climbed the stairs, passing the Gestapo. Terrified, she snatched her baby and fled to safety.

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