Entertainment Food & Drinks How to make traditional Neapolitan Pastiera

How to make traditional Neapolitan Pastiera

by Rae Claassens - Jun 20, 2016

Pastiera Napoletana
Pastiera is a pastry originating from Naples and eaten typically at Easter. Each family has their own preference and own recipe of preparing this pastry. Mamma shared her recipe with me, saying that she learnt it from her nonna (the mother of her mother) and that they have used this recipe for many years.

The key ingredient to this pastiera is the cooked wheat. Of course many choose to make the cooked wheat from scratch, but if you are lucky enough to find the one in the stores, you will save yourself a few hours of work. Mamma bought this grano cotto from the local supermarket which has its own recipe written at the back, but I was lucky enough to learn mamma’s recipe.

This recipe made enough for three individual pastieras which was too much for us to eat alone, so mamma gave one to her amica as a gift.

Ingredients for the cooked wheat:

One jar of cooked wheat grains
60g of butter
The zest of half a lemon
100 g of white sugar
250ml of milk

In a large pot, add all the ingredients and stir. Allow to cook on the stove for approximately 30 minutes and leave to cool.

Ingredients for the crema:

2 egg yolks
3 spoons of white sugar
4 tablespoons of type “00” flour
500ml of milk
The zest of half a lemon

In a small pot, mix the yolks of the 2 eggs with the sugar until a paste is formed. Add the flour to the mix as well as half of the milk. Add the lemon zest and place on the stove whilst stirring continuously in a clockwise direction. Add the rest of the milk and continue to stir and try remove any lumps that may form. Once this thickens and has the appearance of custard, turn off the heat and leave to cool.

Ingredients for the pasta frolla: (pastry)

500g of type “00” flour
2 eggs
150g white sugar
150g butter
The zest of half a lemon
2 teaspoons of “lievito per dolce” (yeast for desserts)

Place the flour on a clean surface. Create a “hole” in the middle of the flour with your finger and place all the ingredients in the middle of this. Mix all these ingredients with your fingers and roll into a dough ball. Cover with a dishcloth and allow this to rest for one hour.

Ingredients for the ricotta mix:

500g of fresh ricotta cheese
500g of white sugar
7 eggs
One teaspoon of cinnamon
Essence of orange flower
One half of a lemon
One half of an orange
5g of vanilla powder

In a large bowl, whisk together the ricotta and sugar until a cream is formed. Add the 7 eggs and cinnamon to this mix and continue to mix with the whisk. Add the cooked wheat mix and the crema mix and continue to whisk all together. In a separate bowl, mix the essence of orange flower and the juice of half a lemon and half an orange; add this to the mix and whisk all together and add the vanilla powder.

Line the pie dishes with butter (we had three pie dishes). Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin and line the pie dish with the pastry. Add candied fruit (cedro candito) to the mix if you wish (we decided to add this to only one of the pies as mamma’s daughter doesn’t like the taste of candied fruit).