Pastiera and Casatiello

[ElainaA]

What experience do people have making these Neapolitan Easter specialties? I became interested in them while reading one of Maurizio DiGiovanni's mysteries, set in 1930's Naples, this one taking place at Easter. Food, while irrelevant to the plot, features prominently in the book. 

The necessary ingredients of pastiera are stated as ricotta, cooked wheat and orange flower water. I found several recipes on line. The Italian sites (read in translation) all specify cooked wheat without giving any further detail. I'm assuming this means whole wheat berries? Boiled? One recipe commented that you could use canned cooked wheat "which you can easily find in any supermarket". Uh, not in upstate New York.  Mario Batali has a version with faro rather than wheat - I guess this would be an acceptable substitute but if I'm going to try this i'd like to be authentic (on the first try, anyway).

I also looked at versions of casatiello. Peter Reinhart has a recipe in The Bread Baker's Apprentice that differs somewhat from the recipes I found on Italian sites. The main difference is that the Italian recipes incorporate grated Parmesan cheese in the dough as well as using cheese as a 'stuffing". He also eliminates the whole eggs traditionally baked on top of the bread.

I am not sure if I will attempt both of these - but I would appreciate any knowledge/experience that's out there.

Elaina

 

 

[teonzo]

The pastiera taste is given by the balance between many ingredients: ricotta, wheat, candied orange peel, candied cedro (cedro is the fruit of the cedar tree), orange flower water and cinnamon. The filling includes also sugar and eggs. If you want to be traditional then you need to make the pastry using lard instead of butter.

You need boiled whole wheat berries. To prepare them you need to soak whole wheat berries in water for 3 days, changing water every 12 hours. After soaking you have to boil the wheat until tender. Since it's a time consuming process now you can find the canned stuff here in Italy, really few people continue to soak their own wheat. Since you can't find the canned stuff then the only way is the traditional soaking method. If you want to use something else instead of wheat, then rice is a better choice than farro (there are various families that prepare pastiera with rice instead of wheat).

 

Sorry but I have no experience about casatiello.

 

 

 

Teo

[Franci]

I've made both pastiera and casatiello, actually the bread without the eggs is called tortano.  This is an old blog of mine of when I still lived in the UK. You can find my recipe and pictures for tortano.

Many years have passed and I find myself less petulant, maybe just age, ah, ah.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Franci (log)

[ElainaA]

I made the pastiera - there are pictures on the thread "Special foods for today's holidays". It was a success - lovely both to look at and to taste. The casatiello will have to wait for next year.

Elaina

[bethesdabakers]

Not sure what date Easter is next year but there are recipes for both breads in Carol Field's The Italian Baker.

 

Mick