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Thursday, March 17, 2016

Easter Pastiera


This classic Neapolitan pastry is an Easter tradition, now eaten all over Italy for breakfast and at lunch. If you soak the wheat yourself it takes a couple of days, so we recommend buying it in a jar to make life much easier. 


Ingredients


For the stuffing

For the pastry

600 grams of ricotta

600 g flour

500 grams of sugar

6 egg yolks

6 eggs

300 g butter

600 grams of cooked wheat, or jar of pano cotto

300 g sugar

4 peel of an untreated lemon

pinch of salt

2 teaspoons orange flower water


2 packets of vanilla


200g mixed candied fruit (lime and pumpkin)


1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


30 g butter


400 ml of milk


1 small glass of limoncello



Method

SERVINGS: 4


  1. Form a mound of flour and add to the centre sugar, butter softened, a pinch of salt and the first yolk. Begin to knead, adding the egg yolks one at a time until.

  2. Knead until smooth and even. Form a ball with the pastry and put it to rest for at least 30 minutes in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap.

  3. Put the cooked wheat in a pan on low heat, add milk 30 grams of butter, lemon peel and teaspoon of sugar. When mixture is creamy, take off heat and cool.

  4. Mix the ricotta, (sieved) and sugar. Add 6 egg yolks, one at a time. Add orange blossom water, cinnamon, vanilla, limoncello and finally the candied fruit.

  5. Add the cooled cooked wheat to the ricotta mixture, then fold in 6 stiff egg whites. Stir until creamy.

  6. Back to the pastry. Divide into thirds. Roll out one piece to a centimetre thick circle to line the bottom of the pastry dish.

  7. Butter a circular baking pan and line with the pastry, cutting away excess from the edge.

  8. Tradition has it that a pastiera is about 6.5 cm, because this depth preserves the fragrance.

  9. Roll out the rest of the pasta, forming a a rectangle and using a notched wheel, cut into 2 cm wide strips.

  10. Pour the filling into the baking dish tray lined with pastry. Leave a finger between the edge and the filling. Decorate the top of the filling with criss crossed strips of pastry.

  11. Bake in preheated oven at 180C (350F) for 1 hour and 20 mins.

  12. Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving. Buona Pasqua.