Pastiera napoletana
A rare cake whose filling is built on cooked wheat berries — not flour, but whole grains simmered in milk to a creamy porridge. They give the filling its characteristic, faintly chewy texture, by which a pastiera can be identified blindfold. The second signature is orange blossom water, and the third is time: a pastiera should mature for a day or two before the flavours come together.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Cooking the wheat 30 min
- Pastry 20 min
- Chilling 60 min
- Filling 25 min
- Baking 75 min
- Maturing 1440 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSimmer the wheat in milk to a cream
Cook the wheat berries with the milk, butter and a strip of lemon peel over low heat for 20–30 minutes, stirring often, until the milk has almost disappeared and the mixture looks like thick porridge with visible grains. Remove the peel and cool. This step builds the entire texture of the filling.
Ingredients: 250 g wheat berries · 250 ml milk · 20 g butter · 1 pcs lemon
Thick porridge with visible grains — the milk is gone.Make the pastry and chill it
Rub the cold butter into the flour with the sugar and salt to crumbs, add the eggs and yolk and gather into a ball without kneading. Chill for an hour. This pastry should be short, not elastic — every minute of working takes it further from that.
Ingredients: 350 g plain flour · 180 g butter · 140 g sugar · 2 pcs eggs · 1 pinch salt
Push the ricotta through a sieve
Force the drained ricotta through a fine sieve and beat with the sugar. Ricotta blitzed in a processor turns runny and the filling will not set evenly; sieved, it stays thick and silky.
Ingredients: 500 g ricotta · 300 g sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 120 g candied peel · 2 tbsp orange blossom water · ½ tsp cinnamon · 1 pcs orange
Through a sieve, never a blender.Combine the filling and fold in the whites
Add the yolks, cooled wheat, candied peel, grated orange zest, cinnamon and orange blossom water to the ricotta. Whip the whites stiff and fold them in last, gently — they are the only thing giving this dense filling any lightness.
Ingredients: 500 g ricotta · 300 g sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 120 g candied peel · 2 tbsp orange blossom water · ½ tsp cinnamon · 1 pcs orange
Line the tin and fill it
Heat the oven to 170°C (conventional). Line a 26 cm tin with sides about 4 cm high with the pastry, keeping a quarter back for the lattice. Pour in the filling, leaving 1 cm below the rim — the mixture rises in the oven and settles back, but it will overflow if you fill to the top.
Ingredients: 500 g ricotta · 300 g sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 120 g candied peel · 2 tbsp orange blossom water · ½ tsp cinnamon · 1 pcs orange
Lay a lattice of seven strips
Cut 2 cm strips and lay seven of them: four one way, three the other, on the diagonal. Seven is traditional — it is how a pastiera is built in Naples. Press the ends of the strips onto the pastry rim so they do not lift during baking.
Ingredients: 350 g plain flour · 180 g butter · 140 g sugar · 2 pcs eggs · 1 pinch salt
Four strips one way, three the other, on the diagonal.Bake 75 minutes at 170°C
Bake for 75 minutes, until the top is deep gold and the filling barely wobbles when you shake the tin. A pastiera bakes long and moderately — hotter would set the surface before the centre could stabilise.
Ingredients: 500 g ricotta · 300 g sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 120 g candied peel · 2 tbsp orange blossom water · ½ tsp cinnamon · 1 pcs orange
Leave it for two days
Cool in the tin, cover and leave somewhere cool (ideally below 20°C) for at least 24, ideally 48 hours. Fresh, a pastiera tastes of ricotta here, wheat there and orange blossom somewhere else. After two days it becomes one thing — and only then does it make sense.
Ingredients: 500 g ricotta · 300 g sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 120 g candied peel · 2 tbsp orange blossom water · ½ tsp cinnamon · 1 pcs orange
Before you start
Jarred wheat berries
In Italy grano cotto is sold ready-cooked in jars. Elsewhere, soak hulled wheat berries overnight and boil them until tender (about an hour), or use spelt. Not cracked grain — it lacks the chewy texture.
How to store it
A pastiera is meant to last through Easter week, but a ricotta and egg filling is delicate. Somewhere cool, under a dome, keep it 2–3 days; for longer, or in warm weather, refrigerate it and take it out an hour before serving so the filling softens and regains its aroma.
Orange blossom water
It cannot be left out without losing the cake's identity, but it can taste soapy. Start with one tablespoon, taste the filling, and add the second only if the aroma is barely there.
