Pastiera Napoletana: The Traditional Italian Easter Dessert

Pastiera Napoletana is the king of Italian Easter desserts. This pie tastes better as it sits for a few days, so feel free to make it well in advance of your big Easter celebration day! 

Pastiera Napoletana. It wouldn't be Easter without it (at least for me).

This recipe is a very traditional recipe for the dessert, including a traditional pasta frolla (shortcrust dough), and candied orange peels and fior d'arancio (orange blossom water) for the filling.

Jump to:

• 🥧 What is it?
• 🌾 What is Grano Cotto (Cooked Wheat)?
• 💡 The best way to enjoy it:
• 🌊 The 7 lattices
• 🍊 Ingredients
• 📋 How to Make Pastiera Napoletana - Step by Step
• ♨️ How to store:
• 💭 Top Tips:
• 🇮🇹 Other Italian Holiday Recipes You Might Like:
• Recipe

🥧 What is it?

It's one of the oldest and most traditional Italian Easter desserts. Think of it as a ricotta pie with cooked wheatberries (grano cotto), and lovely citrus and vanilla aromas and flavors.

As one can tell by the name, pastiera napoletana orginated in Naples, but it's now widely known throughout Italy, from north to south. There are many offshoots of the original version, including one where the wheatberries are replaced with rice, or where the ricotta is replaced with cream.

🌾 What is Grano Cotto (Cooked Wheat)?

Grano Cotto is one of the main ingredients in a Pastiera Napoletana's filling, and the ingredient that makes it so unique. It's wheatberries that have been precooked and is sold in a jar. Buying grano cotto for your pastiera saves a lot of time when preparing the pastiera.

Some people choose to cook their own wheatberries when making pastiera napoletana (and goes along with the very traditional method). But in this recipe for pastiera napoletana, I use the cooked wheatberries in a jar.

💡 The best way to enjoy it:

Traditionally, Italians prepare the pastiera the Thursday before Easter Sunday (Holy Thursday). They then let the pastiera sit at room temperature until Easter Sunday. This resting time of 2-3 days lets the flavors combine and settle. Italians will argue that it tastes best after this resting period.

This is the great thing about Pastiera Napoletana - you can make it a few days before Easter celebrations so you're not worrying about making dessert on Easter Sunday, or even the day before.

Even if you don't make it on Holy Thursday, I would recommend making the pastiera at least the night before and let it sit at room temperature overnight.

🌊 The 7 lattices

The pastiera is meant to have 7 lattices (4 on the bottom, and 3 on top) - this is traditional (the photos in this post were taken before I knew this!)

There are a few legends/stories on where the rule of the 7 lattices came from:
(source: fancyfactory.it)

1. The first legend comes from a bakery in Naples - the 7 lattices represent the 7 ancient streets (3 cardini and 4 decumani) of the ancient city of Naples.
   
2. The second legend is that in the Neapolitan fishing neighborhood of Margellina, the wives of the fisherman brought 7 baskets with ingredients in them as a gift for the god of the sea in hopes that it would help their husbands return safely home after being at sea. The god of the sea mixed the ingredients from the 7 baskets and created the pastiera with the 7 lattices on top.
   
3. The third story says that a mermaid would emerge in the gulf of Naples in the springtime to bring joy to the people of Naples. To show their gratitude, the people would bring the 7 main ingredients to the mermaid that formed the pastiera: flour, ricotta, eggs, orange blossom water and spices, grain, sugar, candied fruit. From here the 7 lattices on the pastiera came to be.

🍊 Ingredients

There are two main components to a pastiera, the pasta frolla (the crust) and the filling.

Pasta frolla is a traditional Italian puie dough, and it is used in many Italian dessert recipes. As opposed to a North American pie dough, it has eggs in it, and sugar. It is more crumbly in texture and not flaky.

For the pasta frolla (dough) you will need:

• All-purpose flour - the base for this dough
• Granulated sugar - to make it a little sweet!
• Baking powder
• Eggs
• Egg yolks - adds a crumbly consistency to the dough (in a good way!)
• Butter
• Lemon zest - adds a beautiful freshness to the dough that compliments the flavor of the filling

For the filling you will need:

• Grano cotto (cooked wheatberries) - the wheatberries are synonymous with a pastiera napoletana - it wouldn't be a pastiera napoletana without them! They add a beautiful texture to the whole dessert.
• Whole milk - makes the whole dessert creamy and delicious!
• Lemon (zested) - citrus flavors are prominent in a pastiera and give it a bright flavor
• Butter
• Ricotta - another key ingredient, blends perfectly with the wheatberries
• Eggs
• Granulated sugar
• Candied orange peels diced into small pieces - adds amazing flavor - it wouldn't be a pastiera without them!
• Candied citron or candied lemon peel - Citron is similar to a lemon but with a thicker skin. It's traditional to use citron in this pie and it pairs nicely with the candied orange
• Cinnamon - pairs beautifully with the citrus flavors
• Fior d'arancio (orange blossom water)- This is water distilled with the essence of flowers from bitter oranges. The orange flower petals are boiled in water, and the scented steam is captured and condensed, making a clear, highly fragrant, and gently flavored liquid. It adds depth and even more citrus flavor to this pie.
• Vanilla bean, seeded
• Extra powdered sugar for dusting

📋 How to Make Pastiera Napoletana - Step by Step

Make the Pasta Frolla (Shortcrust Pastry):

In bowl of a KitcheAid mixer, stir together flour, sugar, and baking powder. 

Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment, and add the eggs, egg yolk, butter and lemon zest (photo 1)

Beat the ingredients together in the mixer until the dough starts to come together, until it almost forms a ball, about 2-3 minutes (photo 2)

On a smooth surface, very gently form the dough into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for one hour (photos 3 & 4)

Make the filling:

Add the grano cotto, milk, lemon zest and butter to a medium sized pot (photo 5)

Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly so that the mixture doesn't stick to the pot. Cook until mixture is dense and creamy, about 20 minutes. Let it cool (photo 6)

In a large bowl, mix ricotta, eggs and sugar with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are incorporated together (photos 7 &8)

Add grano cotto mixture to the ricotta mixture (photo 9), and mix well.

Add candied orange peels, candied citron, cinnamon, fior d'arancio, and vanilla bean seeds (photo 10). Mix well. (photo 11)

Assemble the pastiera: 

Remove dough from the fridge, and cut off ¼ of the dough for the lattice top. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough a couple of times to soften it. Then roll it out to ¼ inch thick (photo 12)

Add the dough to a springform pan (photo 13), cut and remove any overhang.

Fill with the ricotta/grano cotto mixture (photo 14)

Decorate the pastiera with a lattice top with the remaining ¼ of the dough. The lattices should sit gently on the edge of the crust. (photo 15)

Place in a preheated 325°F oven. Bake for 80-100 minutes, or until edges of the pastiera are golden brown (photo 16)

♨️ How to store:

It is custom for the pastiera to not be kept in the fridge. It can be kept at room temperature, covered with a cloth for up to one week (if it lasts that long!)

The pastiera can also be frozen (I wrap it in pieces in saran wrap, then in tin foil), for up to 3 months. When ready to eat, let it come to room temperature and enjoy!

💭 Top Tips:

• The candied orange peels in the filling give the pastiera a very distinct and unique flavor, so I would recommend adding them. I used these candied orange peels. If you can't find candied orange peels, or do not wish to add them, you can add the zest of one orange instead.
• In a very traditional pastiera recipe like this one, candied citron is also used. A citron is a citrus fruit very similar to a lemon, but with a much thicker peel. I used candied citron that I bought in Italy, but Amazon also sells it. If you can't find candied citron, you can can also use candied lemon peel.
• The fior d'arancio (orange blossom water) also gives a beautiful depth to the pastiera so I would recommend adding it as well if you can find it in your city or online. But once again, if you're unable to use it for whatever reason, use the zest of one orange instead.
• Use a metal pie dish or springform pan to make your pastiera. The pastiera crust will come out better this way. Do not use a glass dish, or anything but metal.
• This recipe was made in a 9 inch springform pan, so the filling amounts are suited to a pan of this size.
• The filling in this pastiera is not meant to be dry. Once baked, it remains quite moist/wet and this is normal.

🇮🇹 Other Italian Holiday Recipes You Might Like:

• Strawberry Crostata - Italian Jam Tart
• Pastiera di Riso - Easter Rice Pie
• Struffoli - Italian Honey Balls

If you’ve tried making this Traditional Pastiera Napoletana, or any other recipe on the blog please let me know what you thought of it in the comments below, I love hearing from you!

Recipe