I took this image on my very first trip to the supermarket in Piano del Castel. You know the trip where you’re tired and hungry and looking around for staples of vino and formaggio for dinner, but all these weird strange items keep distracting you from the task ahead, and you end up with a grocery bag that makes no sense, so you go out for pizza!
After some research, Pastiera (pasta and peasant) Napoletana uses the above ‘wheat berries’ in a cake with roots found in Napoli and it is made for Easter. The historical recipe dates back to 1693 and started as a savoury dish using leftover pasta, pepper and parmesan, then morphed into a sweeter tart in 1837 with the use of pistachios and candied pumpkin. The modern version of the cake has become an iconic and beloved Easter tradition. The recipe appeared in 1965 in the so called bible of Neapolitan cuisine La cucina Napoletana by Jeanne Carola Francesconi.
This is not a walk in the park kind of cake. I’ve been looking at recipes for days and let me tell you, it is going to be a hard slog, although it is said, if you can pull it off you can consider yourself a true Italian! It’s obviously not Easter time, but for the next few days it is Ferragosto and having been stuck in Sicily at this time 8 years ago, nothing opens while Mary is assumed, it’s about 3-4 days of religious acknowledgement.
So early this morning I walked the 6k to Piano del Castel COOP (the super-supermarket) and took my time and found orange blossom water, cinnamon (well cinnamon sugar - i’ll adjust the sugar), sugared fruit ( think glace cherries, I went with the sugared orange peel I reckon if I was at home I’d go with the glace ginger because I love it in sweet desserts) flour, vanilla etc and watched the butter soften as I waited for the bus in 40* heat! Miracuously after the 1km walk home after getting off the bus the butter was still contained within its paper binding! phew!
I'll try to make this as simple as I can as there are a lot of steps, but singularly each is relatively easy and the first 2 sections can be done a day ahead then assembled with the ricotta mix and cooked the next day. The wheat berries in Italy can be bought, pre-made in jars and it is what most people use. I think you could use most grains including rice or even canned, creamed rice if you don’t want to cook the wheat with milk and sugar first! Some recipes add honey to pastry to give it more of a golden colour, I think this is because the butter is so white. (I don’t have honey and was surprised by its pale colour, perhaps the bees diet of the region? - Anita x) and I think crystallised ginger with rose water would also be an interesting mix? You can also use the traditional half butter / half lard, but I can’t really aline with rendered pork fat in cake.
PASTIERA NAPOLETANA
The Pastry
290g 21/4c farina 00 plain flour
140g burro. butter
100g 1/2 zucchero sugar
2 tsp scorza di limone lemon zest
sale (if using unsalted burro) sale
1 uovo egg
1 tuorlo d’uovo egg yolk
The Grano cotto /wheat berry mix
280g grano cotto cooked wheat
180ml latte milk
Striscia di scorza di limone strip of lemon zest
The Ricotta mix
450g ricotta ricotta
200g zucchero sugar
3 uova eggs
2/3 c frutta candita candied fruit
1tbsp fiori d’arancio orange blossom water
1tsp vaniglia vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cannella cinnamon
The Pastry method
Throw everything into a processor and blend til it comes together, refrigerate for at least an hour…I’m doing it my hand so basically the same thing but one thing at a time, starting with rubbling butter into the flour. In the videos I’ve watched they are not afraid to really work the butter where it looks almost melted to make the pastry which is great to see in this weather!
The Grano cotto method
Add all ingredients to a saucepan and gently cook for about 30 mins til thick and creamy (think porridge). Spread it out on a plate to cool and remove peel. Once it’s cooled you have the option of blitzing this with a hand blender. Some recipes call for none, some a little, some a lot. I’m going with none as why would you use the wheat berries if you didn’t want the texture of them? As I cook this I think this is what I could do with my leftover slow oats. If I am following the recipe correctly, most of the moisture has evaporated and it’s become a creamy glug, a mashed potato texture.
The Ricotta method
Mix the ricotta and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, candied fruit, orange blossom water, vanilla and cinnamon (I’ve added this with my sugar as I could only find cinnamon sugar!) As I add the candied fruit it is more like dried orange peel (the kind you add to fruit cake) not overly sweet. Add the cooled Grano cotta mix. This is now the finished filling.
Assemblare / Assembly
Oven on 180*
Grease and line 23cm pan
Cut 1/4 off dough put aside for ##gelosies/ strip decoration. Roll out rest of dough and drape over prepared pan. Fork bottom of pastry.
Add filling.
##Add ribbons of pastry for decoration see notes below.
Bake 50-60 mins
Dust with icing sugar if you prefer and pastiera will keep in the fridge for a week.
##The ribbons of pastry on top of the cake are referred to as ‘gelosies’, they are strips of pastry made to resemble the shutters of the ground floor apartments in Napoli. The number of gelosies you use depends on your famiglia tradition but the classic is 4 placed under and 3 on top.
Think this could be the best cake I’ve ever eaten - Mat Ward 2025
Was it worth all the trips to the shop and the messing around? YES! You can taste the chewy little gems - I am glad I didn’t blend them. Its not overly sweet. Mat described it as “ it’s like eating a delicious apple cake but without the apples “- haha
Pesche Piatte - Flat peaches
These have Sicilian roots but are available all over Italy. - Delicious! Also called Saturn peaches. I’d call them space savers as the fruit is easily stackable and would be a fun game for my 3 year old grandson Malo x
