Hi my lovely hivers! First of all, happy Easter to everyone, even if late! This is my first post in this community, happy to be part of it! These days I’ve been a little busy with some things, including I’ve prepared a delicious cake that takes a long time. When I was a child, my mother told me about the history of this cake called Napolitan Pastiera. According to the story, the mermaid called Partenope lived in the Gulf of Naples. To thank her for her singing, all the people gave her the ingredients of this cake and she prepered it for the frist time. I used to love listening to this story when I was a child and in the meantime preparing the cake with my mother. It always been a tradition to prepare it with my mother during Easter. So, this year i want to share our recipe with you!
FOR THE SHORT PASTRY:
- 350 g flour
- 150 g butter
- 140 g sugar
- 2 whole eggs
- peel of half lemon
FOR THE FILLING:
- 300 g cow’s milk ricotta
- 250 g sugar
- 300 g pre-cooked wheat
- 200 ml milk
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 yolk
- 150 g candied fruit (citron and mixed)
- 1 vial of orange essence
- peel of 1 lemon
Put the wheat with milk, grated lemon peel and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a pot. Cook over medium low heat for at least 20 minutes. Be careful not to let it stick to the pot, you have to stir continuously until the milk is completely absorbed. Put it aside and let it cool.
In the meantime, in a bowl, knead the ricotta with the sugar. When you get a soft mixture, without lumps you have to add the eggs, the yolk, a pinch of salt and the grated peel of 1 lemon.
Mix and than add candied fruit in small cubes and vial of orange essence. Add the cold wheat and continue to stir until you get a smooth cream.
Cover the bowl with a plastc wrap and put in the fridge. Meanwhile, prepare the pastry: melts butter until it becames liquid.
Put the flour in a circular shape on the work table and then add sugar, eggs, lemon peel and butter. Knead until you get a compact dough, then wrap it in a sachet and let it rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
After this time, put butter on the entire surface of a non-stick cake pan with high edges and cover it with the pastry, taking care to leave a part to decorate the cake.
Pour the filling inside, then roll out the remaining pastry and cut into strips or create the shapes you like best. Bake the Pastiera in a hot oven at 180 º C. for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, let it cool for 12 hours and now…taste this very good cake!
If you can’t find a place to buy precooked wheat, you can replace it with rice! You can cook 300 gr of Arborio rice in plenty of water and remove it from the fire when it’s not too cooked. After draining it, add 300 gr of ricotta, 250 gr of sugar, 2 eggs, 1 yolk, 150 gr candided fruits and a vial of orange essence. If you don’t like candided fruits, you can replece them with chocolate chips.
With the same amount of ingredients, I repeated the whole procedure and I also prepared 4 mini cakes without decorations over the filling, to give to my friends.
I hope you enjoy this post and you’ll try this delicious cake, that I love so much!
🌻Kisses from Italy🌻