Pastiera

This recipe is more than a dessert to me! It's family! I prepared pastiera with my grandma not only for Easter as the tradition says in Naples! She was almost a professional. She prepared lots of pastiera each time. The recipe is a bit hard because the preparation is as long as the cooking time but believe me It's worth it.

FILLING

350 canned presoaked grain + ½ spoon of not milled grain (for a 20 cm round pan)

90 gr milk

25 gr butter

550 gr ricotta

300 gr sugar

4 eggs

2 yolks

Vanilla

Orange blossom water

Cinnamon

Lemon zest

 

PASTRY

400 gr flour

3 eggs

100 sugar

110 butter

FILLING

Begin the day ahead by milling the grain to get a smooth texture than cook the grain, adding just 1 or 2 spoon of not milled grain, with the milk, zest and butter over low heat for 10 min, so that the mixture is dense and creamy.

The day after  strain ricotta and stir in sugar, eggs plus yolks, vanilla, orange blossom water, cinnamon and lemon zest. When the cream is very thin, add the grain cream.

SHORTBREAD PASTRY

Make a mound of flour, scoop a well in the middle, and fill it with butter, sugar and eggs. Use a fork or pastry cutter to combine the ingredients, handling the dough as little as possible (don't knead it). Once you have obtained a uniform dough press it into a ball and preserve covered in the fridge. 

Roll out 2/3 of the pastry dough and line the pan. Fill it with the filling. Next, roll out the remaining dough and cut it into strips, which you will want to lay across the filling in a diagonal pattern.

Preheat the oven to 150 °C and cook for an hour or slightly more. The pastry should be slightly brown and the filling firmed up but still soft and moist.

Serve without removing from the pan with some icing sugar.

Puré di patate

Nothing is more comfort food than mashed potatoes! Children, adults, nice and bad people...everyone enjoys this simple dish!

I love enriching my puré with some herbs or spices. I suggest this paprika and lemon version for stew or for grilled turkey and chicken.

Elbow grease and a lot of love to start!

6 big potatoes (4 servings) 

30 gr butter

180 ml semi-skimmed milk

salt

lemon zest

Wash and boil potatoes in a pot of salted water until very tender (water must cover the potatoes). Drain and set aside to let cool slightly and peel afterwards.

Pass them through a food mill twice. Set a pot over medium-low heat with the mashed potatoes and dry out.

Add the butter and stir until It is fully incorporated. Add some nutmeg and paprika. Whisk in warmed milk, a little at a time till the desidered constitency (You may need less milk than the amount indicated if you want the purée thicker or if the potatoes were very rich in water). Continue to whisk to incorprate air and make your mashed potatoes super fluffy. 

Serve with some lemon zest.

I

Pancakes

When I was in the US, weekend meant a stack of pancakes! Americans do it better and various.  They eat them with bacon, sausages, eggs, marple syrup, jam, butter and dried fruits.

Personally I prefer the fresh version that I usually enjoyed on my American Saturdays: pancakes, yogurt, fresh berries and acacia honey.

If you want, you can mix up the dry ingredients in advance and store in fridge or offer as a gift to lazy friends.

125 gr all purpose flour

15/20 gr sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt

20 gr butter, melted  (or 2 Tbs greek yogurt)

200 ml milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Combine the milk and vinegar (the soured milk) in a bowl and set aside. Combine the dry ingredients in another bowl.

Whisk the soured milk, egg and melted butter (or Greek yogurt) together. Pour into the dry ingredients and whisk until most of the lumps are gone.

Let the batter sit for 10/15 min than do not stir again but gently dip a ladle and place the spoonful on a buttered hot skillet.  It will be time to turn your pancake when the top surface begins to form small craters.

Enjoy these tall and fluffy pancakes.