Pastiera Napoletana

Pastiera is a traditional Easter pastry in Italy, this pie comes from the city of Naples. The original recipe uses sprouted wheat grains, ricotta, candied fruit … And I offer you a simpler, but no less delicious version of this pie from products we are familiar with. This is a very interesting pie made of shortbread dough and a delicate cottage cheese filling, which is flavored with cinnamon and orange zest. We tasted it both warm and cold – it was very delicious! True, it doesn’t cut as well warm as it does out of the fridge.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

120g butter
2 eggs
¼ cup sugar
270 grams of flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt

For the filling:

4 egg yolks
250 ml of milk
50g butter

1 tbsp corn starch
3 tbsp flour (no slice)
500g of soft fatty cottage cheese
120g sugar
vanilla on the tip
zest of a medium orange
¼ tsp. cinnamon

Sift flour into a bowl with salt and baking powder, add sugar. Then chop cold butter into pieces. Then we knead it until it becomes a fat crumb. Add eggs and knead the dough. Place in fridge for at least 1 hour.

During this time, you can prepare the filling. Let’s make the custard. Bring the milk to a boil. Whisk 2 yolks and 60 grams of sugar until fluffy, add starch and flour. Mix thoroughly to avoid lumps. We pour in a thin stream of hot milk and stir quickly with a whisk. We put on medium heat, bring to a boil, stirring constantly. When it comes to a boil, a little bit lower the heat and bring the cream to the desired consistency. Immediately add butter and mix until homogeneous. Leave it to cool (it is better to cover the custard with cling film or a lid, so that it does not get too hot).

While the cream cools, rub the cottage cheese through a sieve. Add sugar (remaining 60 g), zest, vanilla and cinnamon and beat thoroughly. Add cooled cream and whisk again.

Take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into two parts. Roll out one part and put it in a round dish (I have a 28 cm diameter). Put the filling on top, flatten it. Roll out the second part of the dough, cut it into 11-12 strips and cover the pie at random.

Bake in a preheated 180 degrees oven for 50-60 minutes.

We cool to room temperature, and then a couple of hours in the refrigerator.

Bon appetit!