SECRETS FROM THE KITCHEN
La Pastiera
The Legendary Easter Cake
For the past three years, it has become a must have in our home for Easter: the legendary Neapolitan pie filled with ricotta and cooked wheat, with flavors of oranges and lemons. Ingredients that take me back to the Mediterranean..
La pastiera Napoletana is an Italian Easter cake, originally from Naples. But is has become a favorite all over Italy during the Easter period. The ingredients – ricotta cheese, candied orange peel, orange flower water – perfectly awaken the flavors and scents of spring in the bay of Naples.
Usually on Holy Thursday (giovedì Santo) before Easter, there is the traditional preparation of the Neapolitan pastiera in the Neapolitan kitchens. This is a ritual that has been going on for generations, and families have their own secrets and way of preparing it. When you make the cake before Easter, the ingredients have enough time to infuse before Easter Sunday. The more it rests, the better it will taste.
There are many hidden legends of this pride of Naples, and some say it has Greek origins, like the city itself.
This recipe has pre-cooked wheat grains, grano cotto, which are available all over Italy at this time of year. You can also cook the wheat grains yourself. I found perlespelt from Holli Mølle here in Norway, and that worked perfectly fine.
I got my recipe from the famous and historic Gran Caffè Gambrinus in Naples. I love having a piece for breakfast with an espresso, or serve it in the afternoon with a glass of Moscato, sweet wine. It’s really delicious and I recommend you try it once!
Happy Easter everyone!!
RECIPE
La pastiera Napoletana
DOUGH:
Flour 00 (250 g)
Butter (100 g)
Sugar (80 g)
Honey (20 g)
Eggs ca 1 (60 g)
Whole milk 40 g
Lemon peel
Orange peel
Fine salt 1 pinch
WHEAT CREAM:
Cooked wheat (200 g)
Whole milk (80 g)
Butter (25 g)
Lemon peel to taste
Orange peel to taste
Fine salt 1 pinch
FILLING:
Ricotta cheese (250 g)
Sugar (180 g) I prefer using 100 g.
Candied orange peel (50 g)
Honey (20 g)
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
Orange blossom water to taste
Whole milk (20 g)
Orange peel to taste
Lemon peel to taste
To prepare the pastiera, start by preparing the shortcrust pastry dough. On a work surface, sift the flour and add a pinch of salt to form a volcano, making sure you can see the work surface underneath in the center.
In the center add butter, and sugar. Mix these ingredients well by hand. Continue to mix and add the honey, egg, milk, and citrus peels. Mix the ingredients in the center of the flour until you obtain a kind of soft batter. Add the flour slowly and mix with the help of a dough scraper if needed.
Shape the dough into a ball. To make it more homogeneous, you can lightly dust the work surface with a little flour. Then continue to knead the dough to make it completely smooth and homogeneous. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
While the dough is resting, prepare the wheat cream. Pour the precooked wheat in a pan and add a pinch of salt. Mash the wheat a little to make it uniform and pour in the milk and add the butter. You can also add a piece of orange and lemon peel. Bring it to the verge of boiling which will take just a few minutes. Use a fork to mash the wheat as it cooks and continue to stir. Once it is about to boil, turn off the heat and transfer the wheat mixture to a low and wide pan to cool.
In a separate bowl, add the ricotta cheese and the sugar. Stir until you obtain a soft cream and then let it rest in the refrigerator for an hour.
Take out the cold wheat mixture from the refrigerator, remove the citrus peels and place the wheat mixture in a large bowl. Add the diced candied citron and stir briefly. At this point, if you want, you can use a hand blender for a few seconds to obtain a mixture with a less rustic consistency.
Take the bowl with the ricotta cheese and sugar, add the honey and then mix with the wheat mixture. In another bowl, add the eggs, yolk, and orange blossom water. Then add the milk, zest a little bit of lemon and orange, and mix everything well. Add this mixture to the ricotta cheese and wheat cream in two or three parts and continue to mix. The filling is now ready. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and divide it into two parts, one larger than the other. Roll out the larger part on a work surface with a rolling pin, making sure they are both lightly floured, until you obtain a thickness of 3 mm. Put the biggest part in the cake mold.
Place the filling inside, gently beat the mold on the work surface to eliminate any air bubbles. Roll out the remaining dough and make seven 1-2 cm thick strips. Place the first 4 strips over the filling reaching over the edge of the pastiera mold in a diagonal direction. Then add on top of the 4 strips the other 3, again reaching over the edges, to create a grid pattern. Then eliminate the excess dough. The pastiera is now ready to be baked in a preheated static oven at 180° C for about 50-55 minutes on the lowest rack.
BUON APPETITO!