Pastiera Napoletana
A wheat, ricotta and orange flower tart that Naples makes on Good Friday and eats the following Tuesday. It genuinely needs the days.
Photograph credit: Pastiera Napoletana by rumfuddle · CC BY 2.0 · Flickr
Orange flower water is the whole character of the tart and it is the one thing people leave out, usually because they have only met it in cheap sweets. Use a real one and use it sparingly — two teaspoons in a twelve-portion tart, no more, or it turns soapy. The wheat is cooked with milk before it goes in, which softens the grains and stops them staying gritty in the set filling. And it must cool completely in its tin, four hours at least: cut warm, a pastiera runs.
Questions About Pastiera Napoletana
How long does Pastiera Napoletana take to make?
1 hour of preparation and 1 hour 15 minutes of cooking, plus 5 hours of chilling the pastry and cooling the tart, so allow 7 hours 15 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 12.
Pastiera Napoletana: Step by Step
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Rub the butter into the flour, then work in the sugar, eggs, yolk, lemon zest and salt to a smooth pastry. Wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
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Cook the wheat berries with the milk, butter and lemon zest over low heat 15 minutes, stirring, until creamy. Cool.
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Beat the ricotta with the sugar until smooth, then beat in the egg yolks one at a time.
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Fold in the cooled wheat, the candied peel, orange flower water and cinnamon.
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Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and fold them through.
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Line a 26 cm tin with three quarters of the pastry, pour in the filling and level it.
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Roll the rest into strips and lay them over in a diamond lattice, seven strips each way.
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Bake at 160°C / 320°F fan / 180°C / 355°F / gas 4 for 1 hour 15 minutes, until the lattice is bronzed and the centre barely wobbles.
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Cool in the tin for 2 hours, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before dusting with icing sugar and cutting.
Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Pan and tin size.
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Tips That Matter
- Two teaspoons of orange flower water. More is soapy.
- Cook the wheat in milk first or it stays gritty.
- Cool it completely in the tin. A warm pastiera runs.
Pairs Well With
Espresso · A glass of passito · Made three days ahead
Keeping and Reheating
In the fridge, covered, for 4 days, and better on the third; the ricotta and egg filling should not sit out for more than 2 hours. Let a slice come to room temperature before eating. Do not freeze.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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