Unusual Almond Pastiera
An unusual pastiera to impress your guests at Easter! Filled with a delicious almond ricotta cream and without candied fruit, everyone asked for seconds!
If you love the real traditional Neapolitan pastiera, you absolutely have to try my infallible and super tested recipe of my “Neapolitan Pastiera, Original Recipe“
If you’re looking for other Easter recipes (sweet and savory), click on my “Easter Recipes Special“
You might also be interested in:
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- Very Tender Veal Roast with Milk. Family Recipe.
- Oven Roasted Potatoes, Crispy Outside and Soft Inside by Blumenthal
- Neapolitan Stuffed Pizza, Original Family Recipe
- Easter Pizza with Pecorino, Step by Step. Reliable and Infallible Recipe.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 20 Minutes
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Easter
Ingredients for Shortcrust Pastry
- 4 cups All-purpose flour (With weak w, I use Caputo pastry flour)
- 5 Egg yolks
- 8.8 oz Lard
- 1.25 cups Sugar
- 1 Orange zest
- 1 Lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons Cointreau
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon Orange flower water
- 2 cups Ricotta cheese
- 1.75 cups Sugar
- 1 cup Almond flour (Finely ground almonds)
- 1 cup Cooked wheat
- 7 Egg yolks
- as needed Milk (to cook the wheat)
- 1 tablespoon Lard (to cook the wheat)
- 1 Orange zest (to cook the wheat)
- 1 tablespoon Sugar (to cook the wheat)
- 1 packet Ground cinnamon
- 1 package Orange flower water (1 small vial)
- 1 Orange zest
- 1 Lemon zest
- 7 Egg whites (beaten)
Tools
- Bowl
- Sicilian almond flour, of excellent quality
- Pot
- Immersion blender Braun, 1200 W power + electric strainer
- Stand mixer Kenwood with 1400 W power, illuminated bowl
- Baking pan conical for pastiera
Preparation for the Unusual Almond Pastiera
Prepare the shortcrust pastry in the stand mixer (or in the food processor or by hand), kneading with the paddle attachment, first lard and flour and then quickly add the other ingredients, form a smooth dough and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
For the Filling: cook the wheat, covered with milk with a tablespoon of lard, sugar, and grated orange zest, and a pinch of salt, for about 20 minutes and let cool.
Take another bowl and work the ricotta (I sift it first with Braun’s electric strainer, see Shopping Tips below) with the 1.75 cups of sugar, then add 7 egg yolks, a pinch of salt, grated lemon and orange zest, cinnamon, finely ground almonds, vanilla, cooled cooked wheat (you can pass it through the mixer if you want), orange flower water and mix everything well, place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, beat the 7 egg whites until stiff and finally add them to the ricotta and wheat mixture.
Roll out part of the shortcrust pastry in a 9.5-inch, about 1.5-inch deep pan, place all the prepared pastiera filling, with the remaining dough, form strips 3/4-inch wide and place them diagonally over the filling.
If you see that the strips break, place them in the fridge for half an hour before placing them on the filling.
Bake in the oven, slowly, at 320 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1 hour or more and then leave for 15 minutes with the oven turned off.
Dust the almond pastiera with vanilla powdered sugar, eat it at least after two days, to allow the flavors to meld and achieve a fragrant pastiera that melts in your mouth.
Shopping Tips!!!
To knead perfectly and comfortably the various types of dough, I use my Kenwood Titanium Chef Patissier XL stand mixer with illuminated 7L bowl, integrated scale, and blender with 1400 W power, a faithful kitchen ally for: kneading, weighing, whisking, melting chocolate, pasteurizing eggs.
Or, if you are looking for a more economical and smaller stand mixer, you can safely choose to purchase the Kenwood Titanium Chef Baker stand mixer, with dual 5L and 3.5L bowls, 1200W power.
You can find both stand mixers on Amazon, at a special price.
I processed the ricotta in just a few minutes with the practical Braun electric strainer (“puree accessory”, also ideal for potatoes).
For baking the pastiera, I used the typical conical mold, this 2-piece set for low conical cake pan.
For baking the pastiera, I used the typical conical mold, this 2-piece set for low conical cake pan.
How do you store pastiera?
In Naples, pastiera is prepared on Holy Thursday to be eaten on Easter Sunday, but it is not refrigerated, it should stay at room temperature.
Ricotta, in fact – once cooked – no longer has the characteristics of fresh ricotta and thus becomes much more resistant to room temperature.
So the pastiera can comfortably stay out of the fridge for a week.
You can also freeze it (either whole or in portions) and it will last for up to 3 months. You can also freeze the pastiera unbaked.Should the ricotta for pastiera be sieved?
Yes, I quickly sieve it with the Braun electric strainer (see Shopping Tips above) adv
