Happy Easter

Tomorrow is Easter. We have plans to spend it with Ely's family (parents, sister and sister's boyfriend) in Pieve di Bono, where my grandparents live, so I'll have the chance to spend some time with them and also with my aunts, uncles and cousins.

Weather's forecasts aren't good at all here in the north. Tomorrow it will be rainy and cold. Lately we have been having a terrible weather and, despite Spring seemed to have arrived (we ate out something like a week ago or so!!!), now temperatures have fallen down and on the mountains it keeps on snowing. We want our Spring baaaack! :(( All my new plants on the balcony are suffering very much and my just-bought basil has almost died the other night because it was freezing outside!!! boo hoo...I am starting to think that my gardening skills are pretty disastrous! :((

By the way, as tradition wants, today Ely and I have baked the Neapolitan Pastiera, the most typical Easter sweet of Neaple. My father is a great fan of this rich sweet, because it reminds him of his childhood in Neaple and he always remembers when my grandfather (his father!) spent days baking Pastiera for all the family. In fact it is quite a difficult sweet to prepare, because it has many and very particular ingredients (some impossible to find here in Trento, but last time Ely's mother went to Ischia, she bought us some of them!), different preparations and a food processor is needed to mince all the ingredients for the filling of the shortcrust pastry. On the internet you can find many different recipes for Pastiera, but this is one of the best (it's my grandparent's original one):

ORIGINAL PASTIERA NAPOLETANA

(ingredients for 2 cakes of about 30-35 cm in diameter)

Ingredients for the filling:

PREPARATION 1:

• 1 tin (about 450 gr) of soft wheat kernels (grano)
• 100 gr whole milk
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 30 gr of butter

PREPARATION 2:

• 700 gr of whole milk ricotta
• 600 gr of white sugar
• 5 eggs and 2 yolks
• Orange flowers water
• Vanilla extracts

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

• Use that one ready-to-use (freezed of fresh!). Otherwise follow this:
• 6 T. butter
• 1 1/2 C. flour
• 1/4 C. sugar
• 3 extra large egg yolks

For the pastry:

Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Mix in the egg yolks. Gather the dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

For the filling:

In a pan put together all the ingredients of "preparation 1" and cook for 10 minutes until it is well mixed. Afterward put this preparation in a food processor and mince very finely until it becomes like a cream. In another bowl put together all the ingredients of "preparation 2" and stir well until all is well mixed and soft. Add this to the cream in the food processor and mix it well until the 2 preparations are well incorporated and mixed together.

For the baking:

For the base of this sweet, it is necessary to cook it into an aluminum baking tin. Baste this tin well and add some grated bread (so the cake will not attach!). You can buy ready-to-use (freezed or fresh) shortcrust pastry to use as base of the filling just prepared. Otherwise take the dough out of the fridge and stretch it out until it is thin enough at your own choice and taste. Cut the shortcrust pastry to fit the size of the baking tin, and cover it with the pastry. Fill the pastry with the mix prepared before until it reaches the edges of the shortcrust pastry. Prepare little stripes of pastry and decorate the top of the filling. Put in oven (pre-heated) at 150°C for about 1 hour (but it can be more time) until the top of the Pastiera light browns (like it was caramelized). Remove from the oven and let it stand in the pan until cool. Serve when cool or refrigerated...the next day is even better. It can last more than a week in the fridge.

This sweet tastes like flowers. It's a jubilation of spring flavors. It something unique, to try once in a lifetime at least. Wish I could share it with all my friends close and far. :))

Do you have a typical Easter sweet that you bake or buy every year?

Happy Easter everybody! Eat a lot of chocolate! :))

-M&E