What is Pastiera?

Pastiera is a classic dessert meal in Naples cuisine (cooking from Naples). Sometimes it is called wheat cake or wheat cheese because it uses unusual ingredients in filling wheat and ricotta cheese. Like many Italian desserts, the result is not very sweet, but the combination of flavors is considered to be exceptionally tasty.

Although a pasteter can be called a cake, it is really more cakes made of pastry crust. The bark is rich, usually a combination of butter or lard, flour, eggs and sugar. Usually the dessert is cooked in a pan on the spring and the bark must be robust enough to stand by itself as soon as it is removed from the pan.

Pastier filling is a combination that can be unknown to American panels. Instead, ricotta cheese, boiled half (wheat cream®), eggs, lemon juice, butter, sugar, crystallized orange peel, lemon, cinnamon and vanillacaspolically create a typical filling. Before mixing with other ingredientsshould be allowed to cool, so the eggs do not cook and the lower pastry will not heat. In general, the upper bark is a grid that takes a little extra time, but creates an attractive look.

Although Pastiera is now most associated with Easter and can even be called Easter Cake, Historians of Food believe that the first versions were created to celebrate the pagan ceremonies of spring, and especially in honor of the goddess, Ceres. Another legend associated with the trap was that it was created to celebrate the beautiful singing of the Virgin, Partenope. Every spring would appear and her music pleased villagers. They created food in honor of her beautiful singing, one as sweet as her voice, or in alternative versions, Partenope gave the ingredients of the pasture to God and the goddess and created a Naples dessert.

When Catholicism swept Italy, many of the pagan rituals were rediscovered and incorporated into Christian beliefs. Easter, in particular, is a celebration of Christ rising from the dead, associated with earlier ideas of rebirth and restoring every spring. Pastiera still welcomes Christians quite quite, although in its current form it could be created closer to the 8th or 9th century nuns in the monastery and convent of San Gregorio Armeno.

The newer version of Pastrier, invented by the station, combines most of the ingredients with pastry cream, making the filling lighter. Both versions in Italian bakeries may be found a few days before Easter. Allowing desserts sit for several days, so flavors develop greater depth, is considered traditional and highly desirable.