Traditional Neapolitan Casatiello: Foolproof Recipe, Step by Step
Today I offer you the wonderful recipe for Neapolitan casatiello, a rustic ring-shaped bread filled with cured meats, cheeses, and hard-boiled eggs, which is always delicious, but traditionally prepared in Campania during Easter or Easter Monday, for outings.
In Naples, it is served alongside the “fellata“, the quintessential Neapolitan Easter appetizer, made up of salted ricotta, hard-boiled eggs, cured meats, and cheeses.
If you’re looking for more (sweet and savory) recipes for Easter and Easter Monday, click on my “Easter Recipe Special“.
You might also be interested in:
- Traditional Neapolitan Pizza Chiena: A Family Recipe
- Pizza alla Campofranco: The Neapolitan Brioche That Thinks It's a Pizza.
- Easter Pizza with Pecorino, Step by Step. Tested and Foolproof Recipe.
- Rustic Pastiera with Tagliolini. Ancient Neapolitan Easter Recipe.
- Authentic Neapolitan Rustic Pizza! Step by Step
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 6 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 8 servings
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons, Easter
Ingredients for the Traditional Neapolitan Casatiello
- 4.3 cups Manitoba Flour
- 5 oz Milk
- 5 oz Water
- 0.88 oz Fresh Brewer's Yeast
- 7 oz Lard (+ 3.5 oz for rolling)
- 0.5 oz Fine Salt
- 0.5 oz Sugar
- to taste Black Pepper
- 5.3 oz Neapolitan Salami (in strips)
- 5.3 oz Mortadella (or cicoli, diced)
- 6.7 oz Provolone (semi-spicy, diced)
- 2.1 oz Grated Parmesan (and/or grated pecorino)
- to taste Black Pepper
Tools
- Bowl
- Stand Mixer Kenwood, with 7L illuminated bowl and W1400
- Pan
Preparation of Traditional Neapolitan Casatiello
Dissolve the brewer’s yeast in a bowl with 5 oz of warm water and 5 oz of warm milk.
Add the sugar and the flour and knead the dough in the stand mixer with the leaf beater for about 10 minutes (30 minutes if kneading by hand).
Then add salt to the dough, and once it forms a single piece, add 7 oz of lard – gradually – and knead for at least another 10-15 minutes with the hook.
Make a cross cut and let it rise for about 3 hours.
After the rising time, with hands greased with lard, stretch the dough (NO rolling pin), spread with lard and arrange the filling: Parmesan, cured meats, cheeses, and pepper.
P.S.: When putting the filling into the dough, I take it with hands greased in lard to add flavor.
Roll the casatiello dough over itself into a sausage shape, and at each spiral, grease with a bit of lard.
Gently place the dough into a 10-inch pan greased with lard (NO flour), grease the surface of the casatiello with lard as well. Let it rise for about 3 hours until it reaches the surface of the pan.
Bake the casatiello in the oven at 320°F, but initially set the oven at 212°F, before it reaches 320°F (the Neapolitan casatiello should bake slowly), and bake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Remove from the pan when cold.
The Neapolitan casatiello improves if it rests for a day; it keeps well for 3-4 days, covered with food wrap.
This is the casatiello, but I don’t always put the eggs on the outside.
This is the traditional casatiello with raw eggs on the outside of the dough, the strips of dough encasing the semi-submerged eggs represent the cross on which Jesus died and also his crown of thorns, while the ring shape is a reference to the cyclical nature inherent in the Easter resurrection.
Shopping Tips !!!
Shopping Tips !!!
To knead to perfection, I use my Titanium Chef Patissier XL mixer with illuminated bowl, 7L, integrated scale, and blender, 1400 W power, a loyal ally in the kitchen for kneading, weighing, whipping, cooking, chopping, and pasteurizing eggs.
If you are looking for a more economical and smaller mixer, you can safely choose to purchase the excellent Kenwood Titanium Chef Baker XL, 1200W power, 5L bowl, and integrated scale.
Difference between Casatiello and Tortano
The dough for tortano and casatiello is the same; the difference is that, in tortano, there are no raw eggs with shells placed on the outside of the dough.
In casatiello, however, the eggs are inserted – shell and all – on the outside (placing raw eggs with the shell inside small cavities in the dough enclosed by strips of dough placed crosswise over the eggs).
