Pastiera napoletana
Neapolitan Easter Wheat Pie- Yield
- One 9-inch tart; 10 to 12 slices
- Active
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Total
- About 2 days, including overnight draining, baking and at least one night's rest
- Difficulty
- Medium
The story
Pastiera is the Easter tart of Naples: a sweet pastry shell filled with ricotta, wheat berries cooked in milk, eggs, candied citrus and orange-blossom water, topped with a lattice of pastry strips. It is old enough that Giambattista Basile named it in the 1600s, beside the savory casatiello, in a fairy tale describing a royal feast. Its origin is told in several ways. One account credits the nuns of the convent of San Gregorio Armeno, who are said to have made pastiere for the city's noble families; another links it to offerings to the siren Parthenope. A popular story holds that Queen Maria Theresa of Austria, wife of Ferdinand II of Bourbon, smiled for the first time after tasting it, a story usually dismissed as apocryphal. The custom of timing is clearer. Families made the pastiera on Holy Thursday, often carrying it to the oven of the town bakery, and let it rest for three days before cutting it on Easter Sunday. In 2027 Holy Thursday falls on March 25. Start draining the ricotta on Wednesday night, bake on Thursday, and keep the tart in the refrigerator until Sunday.
Ingredients
- For the pastry:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) cold unsalted butter or lard, cubed, plus more for the pan
- 1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk, beaten together
- For the wheat:
- 1 1/2 cups (12 oz) cooked wheat (grano cotto), from a 14-oz jar
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 strips lemon peel, yellow part only
- For the filling:
- 1 3/4 cups (14 oz) whole-milk ricotta
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon orange-blossom water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
- 1/2 cup (3 oz) finely diced candied orange peel and citron
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Sold in 14-oz jars at Italian delis and online. Or soak 3/4 cup hard wheat berries overnight and simmer 1 to 1 1/2 hours until they burst.
Italian delis and baking suppliers sell it, especially before Easter; use all candied orange peel if you cannot find it.
Method
- The day before baking, line a fine sieve with cheesecloth, set it over a bowl, add the ricotta, cover and refrigerate overnight to drain.
- Make the pastry: whisk the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, salt and lemon zest, then rub or pulse in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Add the beaten egg and yolk and mix only until the dough comes together. Shape into two disks, one twice the size of the other, wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Cook the wheat: in a small saucepan, combine the wheat, milk, 1 tablespoon butter and lemon peel and simmer over low heat, stirring often, for 15 to 20 minutes, until thick and creamy. Discard the peel and cool completely.
- Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the lower third. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.
- Press the drained ricotta through a sieve or beat it until smooth, then beat in 1 1/4 cups sugar until creamy. Beat in the eggs and the yolk one at a time, then stir in the orange-blossom water, vanilla, cinnamon, orange zest, candied peel and the cooled wheat.
- On a floured surface, roll the larger disk into a 14-inch round about 3/16 inch thick and fit it into the pan, pressing it 2 inches up the sides; trim the edge evenly. Pour in the filling to 1/4 inch below the top of the pastry.
- Roll the smaller disk and cut seven strips about 3/4 inch wide. Lay 4 strips in one direction and 3 across them to form diamonds, pressing the ends onto the pastry edge.
- Bake 65 to 75 minutes, covering the edge with foil if it darkens early, until the top is deep amber and the filling is set, with only a slight wobble in the center.
- Turn off the oven, prop the door open and let the pastiera cool inside for 30 minutes, then cool completely on a rack. Cover and refrigerate at least overnight, ideally 2 days.
- Remove the ring, dust with powdered sugar and serve at cool room temperature.
Note: Keep it covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days because of the ricotta and eggs, and take it out an hour before serving. Neapolitan bakers let it rest for days before cutting, so it is ideal made ahead.