PASTIERA

6 people| prep time 48 hours | cooking time 1 hour

What you need

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The Wheet grains cream

The filling

How

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The Wheat grains cream

If you’re using uncooked wheat grains, you first need to  soak them in water over night, then drain to remove the unclear water.

Place the cooked wheat in a saucepan over medium heat with the milk, sugar, butter and lemon&orange zest. Bring to a boil gently, stirring occasionaly until the grains are tender and it becomes a thick cream, about 1 hour.

Let cool until needed.

Then carry on to the next step.

Candied Citron

The skin of sweet and bitter oranges provides a citrus, zesty flavour.

Peel 1 orange.

Place peel strips in large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over heat and simmer 5 minutes longer. Drain.

Slice the strips finely.

In a medium saucepan, heat sugar – half the amount of the water – and 1/4 cup water over high heat until boiling. Add the finely cut orange peels, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes, until water is dissolved and you have a sticky syrup. Remove peel with slotted spoon and dry on wire rack until completely dry.

The filling

In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with sugar, add ricotta to the mixture and beat well to have an homogeneous cream.

Separately beat the eggwhites until they form soft peaks. Put to one side.

Fold the cooled wheat berry cream together with the ricotta cream and add  the roughly cut candied oranges, finely chopped lemon&orange zest, 2 tblsp orange juice, 2 tblsp rum and few pinches of cinnamon.

Finally add to the mixture the beaten egg whites, incorporate to the cream incorporating air.

The dough

Lay the flour on a board in a vulcano shape. Create a hole in the centre and fill it with the sugar, salt, lemon zest olive oil and eggs. Slice the butter in fine cuts and form a ring around the vulcano hole.

Use your hands to mix the ingredients until the pastry comes together into a smooth, elastic ball.

However, the most important thing when making it is not to overwork the dough when you knead. Otherwise, you will end up with a hard dough that’s difficult to roll out.

Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Roll this larger one out to about 3 – 4 mm thickness to cover your pie dish.

Roll out the rest of the pastry and with a knife, cut long strips about 2 centimeters wide.

The composition

Roll out about two thirds of the pastry and place in a 25 centimeter greased springform tin. The borders should be ideally about 4 cm. Cut off any overhang. Roll out again and with a pastry crimper wheel, cut long strips about 1.5 cm wide.

Fill the pastry base with the ricotta mixture and even out the borders of the pastry to the level of the mixture. Lay the long pastry strips gently across the top to form a diamond pattern, pressing the strips on the edge of the pastry very gently.

Preheat the oven at 160ºC.

Place finally the Pastiera on the mid level of the oven and bake for 1 hour until the pastry is golden and the pastiera is amber-brown on top.

Still some more patience…

Allow to cool completely inside the springform pan before removing or chilling. Ideally serve the pastiera the next day.

Remove it from the fridge at least 30 min. before eating.

Serve with some powdered sugar sifted over the top.

Store leftovers in the fridge. If there will be any 🙂