Pastiera Napoletana (Easter Wheat Pie)
This is a traditional Easter pie served in Southern Italy. It is a delicious combination of ricotta, wheat berries, citrus and millefiore extract. The crust is made with lard and an authentic Pastiera Napoletana has 7 strips on top made into a diamond pattern. The history of the meaning behind the seven strips is still unknown, although some websites have theories. But since the signature of this pie is the seven strips, I do it because it is tradition. We like our Pastiera “cotta” which means nice and browned. But the color is up to personal preference.
Pastiera Napoletana
Ingredients
Crust
- 500 g AP Flour
- 200 g Granulated Sugar
- 150 g Lard
- 50 g Unsalted Butter
- 3 Eggs
- Pinch of Salt
Filling
- 420 g Cooked Wheat berries (1 can)
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp Unsalted Butter
- 100 ml Milk
- 700 g Ricotta, Drained
- 400 g Granulated Sugar
- 5 Eggs, separated
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
- Zest of one Orange & 1 Lemon or 1/3 Cup Candied Fruit
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/2 tbsp Millefiore Extract
- 1/2 tbsp Cinnamon
Instructions
Crust
- Add flour, sugar, zest of 1/2 lemon, and a pinch salt to the bowl of a food processor.
- Pulse to combine. Add eggs, lard and butter. Pulse until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a floured surface and knead into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Filling
- In a sauce pan, add cooked wheat berries, lemon zest, 100ml milk, and butter. Heat on low heat until flavors are combined and butter is melted. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- In a large bowl, add 7 egg yolks and sugar. Mix until combined. Then add Ricotta and mix well.
- Add in wheat berry mixture, orange zest, vanilla ext and millefiore ext and mix well. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, beat 5 egg whites with a 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar until you achieve stiff peaks.
- Fold the egg whites into the ricotta mixture.
- Cut the dough into 3 pieces. Roll out 2 bottom crusts and save the third piece for the strips on top.
- Place your rolled out crusts into 2 9 inch pie pans. Scoop the filling equally into the pans.
- Roll out the last piece of dough and cut into 1 inch wide strips. Place 7 strips in a diamond pattern onto each pie.
- Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for the 30 mins and then switch to the middle rack for another 45 mins. If the pie is getting too brown on top, cover with aluminum foil.
