The Beneventan rice pastiera is a delicious variant of pastiera, fragrant and irresistible.
The pastiera is a traditional sweet typical of Campania, and as such, every family has its recipe, adapted over time to tastes, needs, and the availability of local ingredients. Alongside the traditional pastiera with cooked wheat, the rice pastiera was born, which in the Benevento area enriched itself by being flavored with Strega liqueur, produced precisely in this city, with its characteristic yellow color derived from saffron, one of about 70 herbs used for its production. Strega is widely used in pastry to flavor sweets, such as the Beneventan tart, also called Portuguese cake, and it gives the sweets an irresistible aroma and flavor.
Read on to learn how to make the Beneventan rice pastiera with the easy recipe you will find below, as usual, right after the photo 😉
You might also be interested in the following recipes:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 1 Hour
- Portions: 8
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Easter
Ingredients for Beneventan rice pastiera
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon Strega liqueur
- 2 cups milk
- 3/4 cup Arborio rice
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup ricotta
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 tablespoons Strega liqueur
- powdered sugar
Tools
- 1 Cake pan
Preparation of Beneventan rice pastiera
Prepare the shortcrust pastry by mixing flour and sugar with diced butter in a large bowl until you have a crumbly mixture, then add the egg and Strega and knead decisively until you have a smooth and homogeneous dough.
Wrap the dough in food film and let it rest in the refrigerator for an hour.In the meantime, put the milk and sugar in a small pot to prepare the rice cream.
Add the diced butter and bring it to a simmer.
Add the rice and let it cook for half an hour, until it has thickened, then turn off the heat and let it cool.
Sift the ricotta, add 150 g of sugar, and mix thoroughly, also incorporating the eggs and Strega.After the resting time, roll out the dough to form a disk a few millimeters thick to line a 9.5-inch diameter pastiera pan. Butter the pan and place the shortcrust disk in it, trimming the excess and pricking the bottom with the prongs of a fork.
Mix the ricotta cream and rice cream until the mixture is uniform and pour it into the prepared shortcrust shell.With the leftover shortcrust, create the strips to place over the pastiera filling, then seal the edges by pressing with the prongs of a fork.
Bake in a preheated static oven at 350°F for an hour until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let your Beneventan rice pastiera cool completely in the pan before decorating it with powdered sugar as desired.
Notes
Also visit the collection of Easter Sweets recipes with many delicious and easy-to-make ideas at home that can be found by clicking HERE.
If you want to stay updated on all my recipes, without missing any, follow me on my Facebook page by clicking HERE.
