on a more heretical note: I have also experimented with vegan baking lately and I have tried (twice) to bake a vegan pastiera !! much more difficult of course, but it is possible to get rather good results with silken tofu, wheat cooked in home made luscious cashenut milk and more cashenuts in the filling… (+ a light rice oil pastry): not as a good as, but… grams grano cotto from above (this is what remains after two hours of simmering the 65g wheat berries) (~2 1/2 cups of watery wheat) Ricotta cheese: traditionally, sheep's milk ricotta is used in desserts. As it is not easy to find outside Italy, you can use cow milk ricotta cheese

Even if you don't make it on Holy Thursday, I would recommend making the pastiera at least the night before and let it sit at room temperature overnight. 🌊 The 7 lattices

Pastiera Napoletana

Sempre mescolando molto lentamente aggiungi il grano cotto, le gocce di cioccolato, il cedro e infine l’acqua di fiori di arancio. The filling. Taste test your filling prior to adding the eggs so you can make any adjustments necessary to cinnamon, vanilla, or orange blossom water. Accendi il forno statico a 190° e prepara una tortiera a cerniera con diametro di 25cm circa, imburrata e infarinata. Flour your workspace and roll out the pastiera base. Use your pan to estimate the dough circle size, making sure you have enough to wrap the dough up the sides of the pan.

Roll out the remaining 1/3 of the dough, then cut into strips. Lay the strips over the filling in a diamond-shaped (not square) lattice pattern. Press the strips gently into the shell and cut off any excess dough. Bake: A pastiera is not particularly difficult to make, but it does require some “exotic” ingredients you’re not likely to find in a typical supermarket outside Italy, namely grano cotto (pre-cooked wheatberries) and the orange blossom water. The candied fruits can also be hard to come by. But there are sources and work arounds. (See notes for details.) Whisk together all the ingredients under the ricotta citrus filling ingredient list, adding the ricotta-sugar last. Più sotto troverete sia il metodo antico per cuocere il grano originario crudo, sia il metodo veloce per cuocere il grano cotto in barattolo. Place the dough onto a work surface and knead for a few seconds only. You just want to bring the dough together. Form two unequal size balls. Make one large ball with 2/3’s of the dough and the other smaller one with the remaining dough. The larger one will be for the base of the pie and the smaller will be used to make the design on top.

Ingredienti: 2 uova, 120 g di zucchero, 120 g di farina, 50 g di fecola di patate, 600 g di mele, 60 ml di latte, 50 ml di olio di semi, scorza di mezzo limone, mezza bustina di lievito per dolci, zucchero a velo In provincia di Foggia il grano cotto, con la denominazione dialettale di cicc cuott viene preparato a Foggia, Lucera, Monte Sant’Angelo e in altri centri del Gargano. This year I experimented with another crust, using a recipe that was very popular in Italy in the 70s, the pasta frolla by mythical food writer Lisa Biondi, a household name for many Italians (she really never existed though – she was a marketing created persona): it’s the 1-2-3 pasta frolla: 300 g 00 flour + 200 g butter + 100 g sugar + pinch salt + 1 egg to bind: really, really good (one of the best all purpose sweet pastry, I think). Typically, a pastiera is served “family style” directly from the pie plate. If you want a more elegant presentation, however, you can bake your pastiera in a springform baking pan and unmold it before serving. Variations

Pastiera is traditionally made a few days prior to Easter to allow the flavors to intensify, and served as dessert on Easter Sunday, topped with plenty of powdered sugar. stato tanto difficile abbandonare il letto stamattina 🙃 si stava cosìbene al calduccio, ma mi aspetta una giornata intensa con mille cose da fare 🤨 Sprinkle with icing sugar (using a sieve to distribute it evenly) before serving to make it look pretty. Wine pairingThe candied orange peels in the filling give the pastiera a very distinct and unique flavor, so I would recommend adding them. I used these candied orange peels. If you can't find candied orange peels, or do not wish to add them, you can add the zest of one orange instead. Buy the right ingredients, do not substitute the wheat or try to make it yourself; it will not be the same thing Add flour, butter and salt in food processor Blitz till the flour and butter mixed together to fine breadcrumbs Add the caster sugar La kòllyva greca prevede sapori ancora più spartani, che virano verso l’agrodolce. Non c’è il vino cotto, e il grano viene condito, oltre che con i canonici chicchi di melagrana, noci e mandorle tritate, con uvetta, prezzemolo tritato, pangrattato, e zucchero. L’effetto cromatico è particolare, per il candore dello zucchero a velo, interrotto dal rosso dei chicchi di melograno e il verde del prezzemolo. Oltre che in Grecia, il dolce viene consumato anche nei paesi balcanici dov’è diffusa la religione greco-ortodossa.

While the pastry is resting, prepare the filling. Combine the ricotta, sugar, cinnamon, and orange blossom water in the bowl of a food processor. The first legend comes from a bakery in Naples - the 7 lattices represent the 7 ancient streets (3 cardini and 4 decumani) of the ancient city of Naples. I’ve also increased the amount of wheat berries—some recipes calls for only half this amount—and reduced the number of eggs. I’ve had trouble in the past with soft, almost liquid fillings too flimsy to hold up the lattice topping. These measurements eliminate that problem. And I rather like the rather chewy, slightly crumbly texture you get this way. If you want a less rustic texture, you can purée some or even all of the wheat berries. If you want a more solid filling, you can add another egg or two. Some recipes, including Francesconi’s, have you separate the eggs and whip the whites, which are folded into the filling mixture just before baking. Other recipes call for a combination of two whole eggs and two yolks rather than 3 whole eggs. Finally, one common variation has you add a goodly amount of crema pasticcerato the filling—not something Ive tried. Making the grano cotto or cooked wheat was initially the most difficult part of Pastiera Napoletana. For my first attempt, I cooked the wheat berries until they were plump and tender, then I made the wheat cream by simmering the cooked wheat again in milk and butter. This made the wheat even softer, but to my surprise, when the berries baked in the filling, they actually regained firmness. The extra chewy wheat berries weren’t unpleasant, but I definitely wanted them to be less toothsome. Pasta frolla can be sweet or savory. To find out more, you can read the recipe: savory and sweet pasta frolla Instructions Preparing the WheatThe second legend is that in the Neapolitan fishing neighborhood of Margellina, the wives of the fisherman brought 7 baskets with ingredients in them as a gift for the god of the sea in hopes that it would help their husbands return safely home after being at sea. The god of the sea mixed the ingredients from the 7 baskets and created the pastiera with the 7 lattices on top.