Pastiera Mood -7 Young Pastry Chefs - 7 Mouthwatering Memories

 

I’ve lived in Italy for nearly 28 years.  Yes, I’ve called the Campania region my home since 1993.  Since that period I have learned to appreciate the traditional cuisine found in this part of the boot.  One dish in particular is the Neapolitan Pastiera.  It is a pie made with ingredients such as cooked wheat berry, ricotta, and candied citrus fruit.  Served traditionally during the Easter season, but can be found year round.

Over the last couple of weeks, I developed a craving for this popular pie.A pastiera like this one by the highly respected Pastry Chef Antonino Maresca.  The aroma of this freshly baked pastiera got me thinking. Wondering.  During the nearly 40 minute drive in my car from Ro World, where the chef works,  I developed a craving for the stories behind it. The mouthwatering memories. I decided to contact 7 of Campania’s top young pastry chefs.  Those who were very young when I had my first bite of a pastiera pie. Why seven?  Because the original pastiera recipe calls for 7 main ingredients and 7 strips of dough baked on top. 

I was curious about 1) their first memories,  2)who taught them how to bake a pastiera, and 3) what, in their opinion, makes a pastiera perfect.

Here are some  mouthwatering memories  that will definitely put us all  in a  pastiera mood.

Pastry Chef Andrea Marano ( Jose Restaurant )

My first memory of pastiera is linked to work - my grandmother (at the time) and my mother are not very good bakers! (hahaha)  So passion that I have today wasn’t handed down to me, instead  it came from within, which perhaps gives it an added value.

I learned how to make pastiera from the first pastry chef to whom I was a commis. He was an older gentleman with no formal training , but who had working in a pastry shop since he was 10 years old. A life among sweets, let's say.  He explained to  the fundamental points for a "perfect" pastiera.

     1)  Ricotta first of all -strictly sheep's milk

      2)  the perfect balance of aromas of orange and Neroli, and

.      3)  cooking process, which must give the right moisture to the pastiera to create the ideal balance.

Of course every pastry chef has his own recipe that he modifies and "perfects" to his liking .... those with blended wheat berry and those without candied fruit ... well ... every recipe is right.   It tells the story in itself and who creates it.

 

Pastry Chef Ferdinando De Simone (Ristorante Lorelei)

Pastiera is unquestionably the sweet prince of Neapolitan pastry, typical of the Easter period (spring). It is not just a myth, but a real family tradition handed down from generation to generation, but like all myths it is difficult to codify a recipe capable of putting everyone in agreement on the ingredients and preparation. During the Easter period, in every Neapolitan family, pastiera is made with the recipe left by distant relatives and well it goes without saying that everyone thinks that their own is the original recipe.

I can tell you mine…

I was little, I was about 7 or 8 years old, but I still remember it clearly.  During  Easter week,  I would accompany my grandmother to the shop outside the alley of our house to buy wheat berry to soak for the pastiera. We’d put the wheat to soak in the evening and in the morning it was cooked with milk, lard and orange and lemon peels . Mamma mia, what an aroma!

It is thanks to those scents and flavors that year after year my curiosity grew and during Easter it became routine to help my grandmother to try to learn as many secrets as possible - even if alas, today, after almost 10 humble years of trying, I have never been able to make pastiera like my grandmother.

Over the years I have tried to standardize the recipe by finding the right combination between the different ingredients but I only understood one thing  - besides the finest quality and authenticity of the ingredients that grandmothers and Neapolitan housewives mixed perfectly without being fixated with the exact measurements to the extent to which we "modern pastry chefs" are accustomed, love, devotion, respect for the raw materials of the land and fidelity to traditions are essential. These are the elements that make a perfect pastiera. For my part, from a technical point of view, I would recommend, regardless of which recipe you use, to use fresh but very dry ricotta, to dose and balance the smells well, to preferably use natural candied fruit and lastly not to overdo it with the eggs.

Neapolitan pastiera is a dessert that I care a lot about. I connect the memories I have just told you about. I think it is a dessert that contains a little bit of the essence of the Neapolitan people and of the south in general.   Extremely poor ingredients  which represent flourishing and rebirth (a characteristic concept of Easter and Spring).

 

Pastry Chef Laura Cosentino (George Restaurant)

Almost all of my best childhood memories are linked to conviviality and food because in Naples, cooking is a gesture of love. Just as that of the pastiera is linked to my mother, to her hands, to the small fingers with the two gold rings, intent on kneading the pastry, trying to convey the value of those gestures to me. I don't remember the moment of tasting, but I remember the moments that precede it very well.  My mother taught me to prepare it, although as a child I could not appreciate it, but then one grows, one’s tastes change and evolve and today it is one of my favorite desserts. Over time, the recipe has become a little more personal but never going far from the original.

I do not believe that the perfect pastiera exists. Everyone conceives their own recipe as tradition requires, no Neapolitan would think of distorting, the pastiera is a heritage of humanity, a family image.

Each pastiera is perfect if done with love and, for me, better if tall, moist, and fragrant.

Pastry Chef Cesare Casoria (Ro World)

My  pastiera memory is 12 years ago when my mother made it.  It was the first one that I ever saw!  My mother taught me how to make it, and over time, I improved it my own way, tweaking it here and there.

What  makes a pastiera perfect?   Love and the passion that a person puts into making it!

 

Pastry Chef Sara Sciotti ( former pastry chef Palazzo Petrucci)

Pastiera is one of the traditional desserts to which I am most attached, both because it is a classic dessert very rooted in the Neapolitan culture, and because it is typical of the Easter period, so it inevitably brings back memories of when I was little and I watched my mother preparing it for the whole family.

It is no coincidence that it was she who taught me those little secrets that make pastiera special:

the respect and quality of raw materials and the amount of aromas, which “play” a very important role in the creation of a perfect pastiera.

I also think that the key trick to making a good pastiera, in addition to the right balance of ingredients, is knowing how to mix experience with love and passion for what you do.

Pastry Chef Carmen Peluso (Il Mosaico, Ro World)

On Good Friday, Easter cakes were traditionally prepared at home, a day spent in the hands of my grandparents at home, they had a nice wood-burning oven. The sweet casatiello was prepared, the Lenten cookies and obviously the pastiera was the host. It was a hectic and tiring day but also one of the best days I remember from my childhood.

Growing up I could never have imagined that pastry would be my great passion and today my job.

In December 2018 I had the opportunity to taste chef Antonino Maresca's pastiera and learn his concept of the perfect pastiera. A rich dessert, characterized by the fresh scent of orange blossom, with a soft, compact,  but at the same time,  creamy filling with the right amount of pastry at the base and the 7 strips on the surface as legend has it.

The secret to a perfect pastiera?  Creating the right balance between the ingredients that make it up: wheat, quality ricotta, all enhanced by the orange blossom water that releases its characteristic scent.

 

Pastry Chef Fabio Del Sorbo (Molino Dallagiovanna)

Pastiera is one of those fundamental desserts in my life.  It is one of those desserts that shorten the difference between me and my birthplace. And naturally, it is one of those desserts that makes me feel at home.  I can when remember, during the 'production period', I would be the one placing the strips of pastry dough on top of the pie towatds the end of the preparation.  It was something fun and magical, because it was the chance to do something geometrical while completing the pastiera - this was fun.  I can thank my mother for introducing me to the pastiera.  When the Easter season was approaching, pastiera production became something 'spiritual', 'magical'.  We made a lot.  I remember that we made an average of about 40 to 50 pies. These pies ended up as gifts for everyone in our neighborhood.  We used, and still use today, a wood burning oven.  I remember that at the time, I wasn't a big fan of desserts made with ricotta.  The only one was that I enjoyed was pastiera. That's because that combination of cooked wheat berry, orange blossom water, and ricotta was really something magical.  So, my first teacher was my mother.  Since then, I have advised many clients to include different types of chocolate, different types of fruit, and even dried fruit.  In my opinion, however, he classic recipe is unbeatable. What makes a pastiera special?  That combination between ricotta, orange blossom water, and wheat berry.  Today, many pastiera producers use wheat berry that is already cooked.  I advise  my clients to try to begin from scratch...meaning to but the wheat berry, cook it and add aromas.  In this way, one can create a product that is special and has the characteristics that one believes in.

And if those stories don't put you in a pastiera mood, I do not know what will!