In Italy Carnevale means not only costumes, masks, playing jokes, parties and parades but also eating lots of sweets at a time of year when excess is celebrated. Most of these – like frappe (or chiacchiere), castagnole and cicerchiata – involve different forms of fried dough.  Instead, the Neapolitan ricotta cake called migliaccio is a baked dessert.  Its origins can be traced to the Middle Ages and its name derives from the Latin word miliaccium – the traditional bread made of millet flour.  Up to the 1700s the term indicated a sweet made by peasants using millet and pig blood (considered particularly nourishing).  The Catholic church discouraged the use of blood because it associated it with pagan traditions. Gradually it was substituted by the use of eggs and ricotta, eventually becoming today’s cake which is made with semolina flour.  Traditionally the cake is cooked in a copper pan but nowadays it’s more common to see it in an aluminum cake tin. It’s a light(ish) cake, not too sweet, usually with a  citrus fragrance.  There is no one “original” recipe but this one makes a nice airy cake and a good way to participate in the revelries.