Neapolitan Pastiera – Italian Easter Tart

Ready in

2h 30 min

Preparation

2h 10 min

Cooking

20 min

Portions

8 Person

Cost

medium

difficulty

medium

5/5

Tipically Easter pie of Naples

Neapolitan Pastiera a italian easter tart

The Neapolitan pastiera or “a pizza cù grano”, as it is called in Cilento, is the queen of Easter tart in all of Campania. The crumbliness of the dough, the creaminess of the filling and the scent of the spices make this dessert a true delicacy that clearly stands out from all the others. The Neapolitan pastiera was born from the mastery of some nuns of San Gregorio Armeno, where, for the upcoming Easter, they thought of paying homage to the royals of Naples: Ferdinand II of Bourbon and Maria Teresa of Austria, with a dessert which, in addition to of Christ also represented his sacrifice and immortality.

Making use of the parable of the grain of wheat, where Jesus says: “Unless the grain of wheat dies it bears no fruit”, they boiled the wheat with milk which, mixed with sheep’s ricotta cheese, symbolized death, they represented the ointments of the sepulcher by flavoring the ingredients, with cinnamon and a thousand flowers, mixed everything with sugar and eggs, a symbol of life, and here is the resurrection. In the Neapolitan pastiera we therefore find rituals, taste, genius and mastery but, even if the impactful dessert may seem complicated, it is not difficult to elaborate it, also because the wheat is pre-cooked in all supermarkets and especially if you follow all the steps and advice from Nonna Claudia.

Ingredients

Dough
  • 500 g flour 00
  • 200 g butter
  • 200 g sugar
  • 2 whole eggs
  • organic orange zest
Cream
  • 250g/9oz jar of pre-cooked wheat
  • 350g/12oz fresh ricotta cheese
  • 250g/9oz sugar
  • 100ml milk
  • 5 whole eggs
  • 25g/1oz suet or lard
  • 100g/4oz candied citron & orange peel
  • 10g/0,35oz cinnamon powder
  • 15g/0,5oz vanilla powder
  • 1 organic lemon zest
  • 1 organic orange zest
  • 1 vial of millefiori aroma
  • j.e. flour for rolling out
Decorazione
  • 70 g vanilla icing sugar
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Directions

First we make the shortcrust pastry. On the pastry board, pour the flour and make the fountain*

fontana pasta frolla

buccia arancia pastafrolla

Put the sugar in the fountain, break the eggs and grate the orange peel over all the flour

Take the butter at room temperature and cut it into small pieces on top of all the flour

burro pasta frolla

impasto pastafrolla

Quickly mix all the ingredients, so that the dough does not overheat with the heat of your hands

Roll up the dough, then, mash it a little

panetto pastafrolla

pasta frolla frollatura

Wrap the dough in a cloth and put it to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, otherwise 12 hours

While the shortcrust pastry is resting, pour the pre-cooked wheat, milk, half the sugar and lard into a large saucepan

Put the saucepan on the gas, add the previously washed lemon and orange peels and the candied fruit, cook for 15 minutes on a moderate heat, stirring frequently otherwise it will stick, turn off and let it cool

While the cream of wheat is cooling down, we separate 2 yolks from the white, put them in the planetary mixer, add the remaining whole eggs, the sugar and whip them into a cream, as if it were a sponge cake

In a large bowl, sieve the ricotta or mash it with a potato masher

Add the ricotta to the cleaned eggs, the cinnamon, the millefiori and the vanilla, then mix all the ingredients with your hands, incorporating the ricotta well into the eggs

When the cream of wheat is cold, put half of it in the blender, taking care to also take all the citrus peels and blend them, if you don’t like candied fruit, blend all the cream

Add all the wheat, blended or not, to the ricotta and egg mixture, mix all the ingredients well with your hands

pasta frolla ricetta cilento

Take the shortcrust pastry from the refrigerator, roll it out with a rolling pin until it reaches a uniform and rounded sheet with a maximum thickness of ½cm/0,2in

With the pastry, line a 26cm/10in pan, make it adhere well and cut off all the excess pastry that comes out of the edge

pasta frolla teglia

Prick the bottom of the pan with the prongs of the fork, pour the cream of wheat

Re-knead the shortcrust pastry, roll out with a rolling pin and make another sheet of ½cm/0,2in thickness, then, with the wheel, cut the sheet into strips about 1cm/0,4in wide

strisce pasta torta di riso

Take the strips of shortcrust pastry and place them diagonally on the cake, from left to right and vice versa, in this way diamonds will be formed which in jargon are called grids

Lower the edge of the shortcrust pastry, sprinkle with a pinch of granulated sugar the whole grill and the edges

Turn on the oven to 180°C/360°F, when ready, bake the cake and cook for 40 minutes, then lower the temperature to 160°C/320°F and continue cooking for another 20 minutes

Remove the cake from the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then, with a slightly larger and rounder tray, turn the cake upside down, as if it were an omelette, let it stay upside down for 10 minutes, then turn it over with another tray and cool down

Before serving, the pastiera should be dusted with vanilla icing sugar

Tips

  1. To have an excellent shortcrust pastry, knead it the day before.
  2. When you roll out the dough, always flour it every time, otherwise it will stick.
  3. For excellent cooking of pastiera, always use a light aluminum pan, because it cooks better.
  4. The cooked wheat must be cold before placing it in the eggs.
  5. *sugna or lard is extracted from pork fat, if you want to make it at home, go and see the recipe on my website.
  6. *The fountain is the hole you make in the flour so that the liquid ingredients don’t come out.
  7. *Silicone spatula pot licker

Storage

  1. The pastiera can be kept for three to four days, always covered by a bell, otherwise it dries up, in a cool place at room temperature but, if it’s hot, it should be put in the fridge.

Equipments

  1. Casserole (Pot)
  2. Wooden ladle
  3. Kitchen washer
  4. Rolling pin
  5. Pastry board
  6. Grater
  7. Knife
  8. Leccapentola *
  9. Planetary or mixer
  10. Crush potatoes or sieve
  11. 26cm pan
  12. Tray
  13. Oven
  14. Cooker
  15. Fridge
  16. 2 Bowls

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