The Easter holidays have arrived and you will almost certainly try your hand at preparing many Easter recipes, such as that of the traditional Neapolitan dessert: Pastiera.
We have already presented you the classic recipe, but this time we want to focus on a different variant. Not everyone can eat the normal pastiera, and therefore elegant and equally elegant ones are born good alternatives.
Today we present you the version, coming from the Vesuvian countries, al rice.
Ingredients
- 250 gr flour 0
- 80 gr butter
- 80 gr sugar
- 2 yolks
- grated lemon zest
- a pinch of salt
- 2 egg yolks
- 50 gr sugar
- 20 gr rice flour or potato starch
- 250 ml of milk (preferably whole)
- half a vanilla bean or a bag of vanillin
- a lemon peel
- 300 gr ricotta for desserts
- 200 gr granulated sugar
- 30 gr candied fruit (orange, lemon, cedar)
- 100 gr cooked rice (blanched and flavored with orange and lemon peels and 50 ml of milk)
- 4 Eggs including 2 whole and 2 egg yolks
- 20 cl millefiori water
- a envelope of vanillin
We prepare the short pastry
let's say fountain flour on a table with the lemon zest and a pinch of salt, add the sugar and the softened butter and begin to knead, then add the egg yolks and knead until a homogeneous and smooth mixture is obtained.
Let it rest for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator before resuming the dough and using it for dessert.
We prepare the custard
Let's start by preparing the custard heating the milk and combining the lemon zest and vanillin, pour the egg yolks and sugar into a saucepan, beat everything until you get a frothy and whitish mixture.
Add the sifted flour and mix to incorporate it into the mixture of egg yolks and sugar.
Always stirring constantly pour the hot but not boiling milk, after having eliminated the lemon peel, place on the fire and without stopping stir it boil, lower the fire a little and make cool down for 3 or 4 minutes, just let it cool down.
Cook the rice
We also prepare cooked rice which will have to cool like cream before being used in the dessert, let's start sbollentandolo first and then pouring it into a saucepan with the lemon and orange peel and the milk and let's stir it for 10 minutes.
It will be ready as soon as a thick and creamy mixture results, after which we let it cool well.
We prepare the pastiera
We mount the eggs with the sugar to create a fluid and clear mixture to which we will add the fresh ricotta (possibly sifted), millefiori water, vanillin, wheat, cream and candied fruit cut into small pieces.
This will be the filling for our dessert to be poured into the pan lined with parchment paper (or previously buttered and floured) and covered with a very thin layer of shortcrust pastry which we will roll out with a rolling pin and flour.
After spreading the shortcrust pastry into the aluminum pan and filling it with the filling you have prepared as per the Neapolitan tradition, it is necessary to decorate the pastiera with strips of remaining shortcrust pastry.
Bake in preheated oven at 180 ° for at least 1 now in the central shelf of the oven, in the last 10 minutes it will be necessary to put the cake first in the shelf below (in order to brown the bottom) and a little in the top shelf until is "tanned". Allow to cool well and serve sprinkled with icing sugar!
Happy Easter.
