Almond and Pine-Nut Tart

Almond blossoms ushering in the spring, almond nuts drying in the Sicilian sun of late summer, almond pastries in the windows of Venetian bakers remind us that for most of its desserts Italy looks toward the balmy eastern Mediterranean rather than to the mass of the European continent to which it is attached.

My husband loves almond cake, which his mother, who was born in the Middle East, used to make so well. He is also insatiably fond of pine nuts—he can eat a sackful. From time t