Well, five years on, I've gotten pretty close, but no cigar yet. I know now that I can nail the filling. My Maltese uncle confirmed that it is cow's milk ricotta, and I've discovered only home made ricotta will do for its low moisture content. This allows you to add more eggs for more flavor. Then quite a bit of S&P to make it perfect. But I haven't yet perfected the ratios. But I always knew that would be the easy part. I nailed it once - I know I I can do it again (and eventually repeatedly)
Now I'm on to fine tuning the pastry. The technique is one thing, but I've got it close and is just something I'll have to work on. But now I'm having a crisis about which flour to use.
My latest (and even a bit photogenic) result was with Caputo "00" flour. But my previous attempt used high gluten flour and wasn't really that different (and might've had a better flavor). There are more videos out their now, but none of them explain the characteristics of the flour you want.