This week we offer you one of the most exquisite desserts of the Neapolitan tradition: the "Ricotta and pear cake"
Continue with the section "Cook the Neapolitan style"With a good dessert of the Neapolitan tradition: the"ricotta cheese and pears cake". It is a one-of-a-kind dessert that was born on the sunny Amalfi coast, where the heady scent of lemons aromatizes everything and makes life a little more fragrant.
And this is precisely the purpose of this column: always bring a smile and the scent of tradition to the beautiful people of the colorful Naples!
And it is the ricotta and pear cake, a fantastic result of the creative flair of the famous pastry chef Sal de Riso, which today we are going to propose you in a revised version for Napolike readers; is with the delicacy enclosed in ricotta and the sweetness of pears that this dessert becomes suitable to be served on the Sunday tables of all Neapolitans.
Ingredients (dose for 15 slices):
For the two biscuit discs:
- 100 gr granulated sugar
- 75 gr potato flour
- 75 gr almond flour
- 4 whites
- 100 gr butter
the ricotta and pear cream:
- 300 gr of fresh sheep ricotta
- 200 ml of whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 pere Kaiser
- the juice of half a lemon
- 1 pears liqueur cup (optional)
- to garnish, a nice sprinkling of powdered sugar
Preparation
First of all we have to prepare a kind of pear puree in syrup proceeding with cut into small pieces the same pears, which we will have well cleaned and peeled and, placing them in a saucepan with a tablespoon of sugar and the juice of half a lemon, let reduce until they are syruped.
Then, let's go to the mixer all the ingredients for the biscuit dough base. It should be a mixture similar to a shortcrust pastry, but much softer, so I recommend spreading half of it on the bottom of a pan at least 20 cm in diameter, perfectly buttered and floured. Even if it is not very compact, don't worry, it will become a very crunchy disc during cooking.
Bake in preheated oven a 170° for no more than 10 minutes, until the biscuit circle is golden brown. As soon as the first biscuit is ready, let it cool and proceed with rolling out the other half of the dough in the same pan that we will have buttered and floured again.
On the part we prepare the cream cheese starting with sieving it to eliminate the lumps it contains. Let's whip, then the ricotta with the sugar and let rest at least 15 minutes in the fridge covered with the food film.
On the side with whips we whip the cream until stiff and incorporate it from top to bottom with the cream of ricotta and then we have to add the pears in syrup that will have cooled.
It's time to mount our ricotta and pear cake placing the first biscuit on a cake tray and filling it with the ricotta cream initially placed in the center; we will then cover it with the second circle of biscuit, which will be carefully placed on the cream. After having trimmed the edge of the cake, only sprinkle with plenty of icing sugar.
Cook's notes:
Il pear liqueur it can be added at the time of syruping the pears by blending the alcohol well, it will give a unique aroma to the filling of this very fresh cake.
This delicious dessert is perfect for Sunday because it can be prepared well in advance; in fact, consuming it after a few hours from its preparation will make the different flavors used even better amalgamated.
