Simone Esposito’s pastiera is the traditional cake I decided to make this year for Easter. I must say I love pastiera and, generally, all ricotta desserts, but the preparation of pastiera has its own charming and wonderful ritual: making the shortcrust pastry, cooking the wheat in milk, preparing the pastiera on Holy Thursday, and the number of strips that recall the layout of the ancient city of Naples.
Not to mention the industrial quantities of pastiere traditionally prepared because families wish each other a Happy Easter by exchanging pastiere and traditional casatielli or stracciati. As always with traditional recipes, everyone has a family version and insists theirs is best. A ritual repeated every year that is beautiful both from a tradition and human point of view.
Back to Simone Esposito’s pastiera, this year I decided to try it because it seemed a faster version of the classic pastiera: shorter resting times for the shortcrust and the wheat is not cooked in milk, since, as Simone Esposito rightly points out in one of his videos, the wheat used for pastiera is already cooked. It would be different if starting from raw wheat to cook. I was also very curious about his eggless shortcrust made with water.
So I ventured to make his recipe and it was a great success. I managed to prepare it in an afternoon without difficulty.
Believe me, it’s really delicious, with a creamy, not dry filling. I followed his recipe exactly. I only used a bit more candied peel to suit my taste and slightly adjusted the baking times because my oven is new and the heating elements are very powerful, but in the end the pastiera’s shortcrust baked perfectly and the filling was really tasty. Now let’s look at Simone Esposito’s pastiera recipe: with the quantities given here you can make either one 28–30 cm (11–12 in) pastiera or two 22 cm (8.7 in) pastiere. Before the recipe and procedure, here are links to some other Easter sweets from my Puglia, where, among other things, people traditionally prepare the ricotta tart with chocolate chips (called “pizza di ricotta” in Bari) or the lemon ricotta tart and the crustless ricotta cake.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Day
- Preparation time: 1 Hour
- Cooking time: 45 Minutes
- Portions: 12Servings
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian Regional
- Region: Campania
- Seasonality: Easter, Easter Monday
- Energy 623.16 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 98.46 (g) of which sugars 64.39 (g)
- Proteins 12.50 (g)
- Fat 21.54 (g) of which saturated 13.38 (g)of which unsaturated 7.59 (g)
- Fibers 2.09 (g)
- Sodium 158.06 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 235 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Simone Esposito’s pastiera
- 4 cups 00 flour (all-purpose)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 7 oz butter (or lard (about 14 tbsp — ~7/8 cup))
- 3.4 fl oz water (or 2 eggs)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 cups sheep's ricotta
- 2.5 cups cooked wheat (grano cotto)
- 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 6 eggs eggs (about 6 large eggs)
- 2 vials orange blossom flavoring (or millefiori)
- 2 packets vanillin (vanilla powder)
- 1/3 cup candied peel (candied orange and citron)
Tools
- Ring molds 8.7 in
- Rolling pin
- Bowls
- Pastry wheel
Steps to prepare Simone Esposito’s pastiera
Let’s see how to prepare Simone Esposito’s Neapolitan pastiera. Start with the shortcrust pastry so that, while it rests in the fridge, you can prepare the filling.
In a bowl put the flour, sugar and room-temperature butter and begin to work the ingredients together.
Then add the water or the eggs. Also add a pinch of baking powder. Work the shortcrust until you have a homogeneous dough. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for about half an hour (or a few hours if you prefer to prepare it in advance).
Now prepare the filling.
In a large bowl, sift the ricotta and work it until you obtain a smooth cream.
Then add the cooked wheat and mix well with a fork.
Also add the sugar and continue working until you get a soft, silky cream.
At this point add the eggs, the orange blossom flavoring (or millefiori) and the vanillin (or vanilla extract). Work the cream again to incorporate all the ingredients well.
Finally, add the candied peel. Usually candied orange and candied citron are used. Use good-quality candied peel because it greatly affects the final flavor of the pastiera.
Take a pastiera pan of 11–12 in (28–30 cm) or two 8.7 in (22 cm) pans and grease them with lard.
Roll out the shortcrust to a thickness of about 4–5 mm (about 1/8–3/16 in), fit it into the pan and remove the excess dough by running a pastry wheel along the edges of the mold.
Prick the bottom of the pastiera with a fork and then pour in the filling, leaving a few millimeters from the edge.
With the remaining dough, make the strips for the top no wider than about 1–1.5 cm (about 3/8–5/8 in). Traditionally there should be 7 strips. Lay them over the filling and trim any excess at the edges.
Preheat the oven to 374°F (convection) and bake on the lower rack for about 40–45 minutes. However, I recommend adjusting according to your oven’s power, because I baked mine at 356°F (180°C) for about 40 minutes to cook it perfectly without drying it out.
The pastiera should be well baked at the end and the filling should have an amber color.
Let it cool completely before removing it from the mold. I personally baked it on Friday afternoon and unmolded it only on Sunday morning.If you like, you can dust it with a little powdered sugar.
Storage
– According to tradition, pastiera is not stored in the refrigerator because the shortcrust shell would absorb too much humidity; instead it is kept at room temperature in a well-sealed container, in a cool, dry place away from moisture.
However, if temperatures are higher than usual, store it in the fridge well covered to avoid absorbing odors and take it out in time to enjoy it at room temperature.
– Note that baking times also change depending on the size of the pastiera. A large pastiera needs much more time to bake properly, so if you decide to make the pastiera in an 11–12 in (28–30 cm) pan, lower the oven temperature to 352°F (160°C) and extend the baking time to an hour or more.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Why is there always so much sugar in pastiere?
Sugar, together with candied peel, used to act as a preservative for pastiera because, traditionally, pastiere are prepared on Holy Thursday to be eaten on Easter Sunday. If you don’t need that preservation, you can reduce the sugar in various recipes you find.
