Think On It

Dora Siragusa makes Pastiera Napoletana

Straight from the horse’s mouth, Dora is guest blogging to tell us how to make her version, which is absolutely the best I ever had. This is very rich, and will serve 12. It looks like a lot of work, and maybe it is, but it is a feast dessert for a very special occasion and it is worth it.

For my pastiera I use the following basic recipe but I make a few changes to it.

The first change is the quantity of candied citron, pumpkin and orange. I use half the quantities (40, 40 and 25 grams) and I cut them very finely so that they don’t stick in the teeth. The other change is that I blend the grano cotto
(cooked wheat) because I don’t like the original texture. If you don’t like the pieces of candied fruit in the pastiera you can make it without, it’s up to you, it’s important though the millefiori or fiori d’arancio aroma, it gives the pastiera the typical smell of spring.

I was sure I had taken pictures while making it (I last made it here in USA last week) but I can’t find them anywhere,
the web is full of pictures anyway.

PASTIERA NAPOLETANA

PASTA FROLLA PER PASTIERA
• 3 uova intere 3 whole eggs
• 500 gr. Farina 500 g flour
• 200 gr. Zucchero 200 g sugar
• 200 gr. di strutto o di burro 200 g lard or butter

Preparazione:

Su un tavolo disporre la farina e lo zucchero a fontana con al centro il
burro ammorbidito, i tuorli d’uovo e la buccia grattugiata di mezzo limone.
Con una forchetta sbattere le uova al centro della fontana incorporando poco
alla volta la farina i burro e lo zucchero. Quando gli ingredienti saranno amalgamati,
lavorare la pasta rapidamente senza impastarla, ma soltanto pressandola fino a
quando il colore sarà diventato uniforme. La pasta frolla non va lavorata
troppo per non farle perdere la friabilità. Far riposare, almeno una mezzora,
l’impasto coperto da un tovagliolo bagnato e strizzato.

Preparation:

On a work surface, arrange the flour and sugar in the form of a fountain
or of Vesuvius, with the softened butter, the yolks of the eggs and the
grated peel of half a lemon in the center. With a fork, beat the egg yolks
in the center, mixing it gradually into the flour, incorporating theflour/sugar
and the butter bit by bit. When the ingredients are mixed, knead the pastry
quickly, but only until smooth and of a uniform color, don’t overwork it like
bread or it will be tough. Let it rest at least a half hour covered with a napkin
you have wet and wrung out.

Ingredienti per la pasta: per 12 persone ingredients for the filling
• gr. 700 di ricotta 700 g of ricotta
• gr. 600 di zucchero 600 g of sugar
• gr. 400 di grano cotto (si trova in scatola anche 400 g of cooked wheat from a jar or tins
nei supermercati, se non lo trovi clicca su grano cotto if you can’t find it, I’ll make a link to a place
per cuocerlo da te) that tells you how to make your own.
• gr. 80 di cedro candito (I use 40 gr) 80 g (40) candied citron
• gr. 80 di arancia candita (40) 80 g (40) candied orange peel
• gr. 50 di zucca candita ( 25) (si chiama”cucuzzata”) 50 g (25) candied squash (cucuzzata)
• un pizzico di cannella a pinch of cinnamon
• gr. 100 di latte 100 g of milk
• gr. 30 di burro o strutto 30 g of butter or lard
• 5 uova intere + 2 tuorli 5 whole eggs plus 2 yolks
• una bustina di vaniglia 1 tsp. of vanilla extract

• un cucchiaio di acqua di fiori d’arancio 1 tablespoon of orange flower flavoring
(I use> millefiori, if I don’t have the fiori d’arancio, or millefiori flavoring
it’s the same)
• 2 limoni 2 lemons

Preparazione:

Versate in una casseruola il grano (blended in my case), il latte, il burro
e la scorza grattugiata di 1 limone; lasciate cuocere per 10 minuti
mescolando spesso finchè diventi crema.
Frullate a parte la ricotta, lo zucchero, 5 uova intere più 2 tuorli, una bustina
di vaniglia, un cucchiaio di acqua di fiori d’arancio e un pizzico di cannella.
Lavorare il tutto fino a rendere l’impasto molto sottile.
Aggiungere una grattata di buccia di un limone e I canditi tagliati a dadi.
Amalgamare il tutto con il grano. Prendete la pasta frolla e distendete
l’impasto allo spessore di circa 1/2 cm con il mattarello e rivestite la
teglia (c.a. 30 cm. di diametro) precedentemente imburrata, Ritagliate la
parte eccedente, ristendetela e ricavatene delle strisce. Versate il
composto di ricotta nella teglia, livellatelo, ripiegate verso l’interno i
bordi della pasta e decorate con strisce formando una grata che pennellerete
con un tuorlo sbattuto. Infornate a 180 gradi per un’ora e mezzo finch’è la
pastiera non avrà preso un colore ambrato; lasciate raffreddare e, prima di
servire, spolverizzate con zucchero a velo.

Preparation:

Turn the cooked grain into a pan with the milk, the butter and the grated peel
of one lemon. Cook it for 10 minutes, stirring, often until it becomes creamy.
Using a blender or food processor, mix the ricotta, the sugar, the 5 whole eggs
and two yolks, the vanilla, the flower flavoring and the cinnamon. Blend until it
becomes very smooth. Stir in the grated peel of a lemon, and the diced candied
fruit peels. Mix this together with the grain mixture.

Take the pasta frolla you have made and roll it out about 1/8 inch thick and line
a buttered cake or torte pan of about 12” diameter with it. Cut away the extra
pastry from the edge, leaving from ½” to 1” all around, and then re-roll the extra
and cut it into strips.

Pour the filling mixture into the pastry shell and level it. Turn the edge piece
toward the center and then using the strips you’ve made, cover the filling
with a lattice pattern of strips. Brush the top of the pastry with a beaten egg yolk.

Put the Pastiera into a preheated 180° C or 350 °F oven and cook it for
about 1.5 hours, removing it before it turns amber colored. Leave it to cool
and then before serving it, sprinkle it with powdered sugar.

The grano cotto: In Italy I found it in a glass jar (here in the States I found it available
in a aluminum 220 gr. can ).

It never happened to me in Italy but it happened to me twice here in
the USA….. the mixture of the ricotta cheese and wheat and all those
ingredients together was too liquid the first time and the strings of
pasta frolla on top dropped inside. What I did the second time to correct the
issue was to put a couple of tablespoons of corn starch in the corn and
ricotta mixture while cooking it to make it more solid so that when I
laid the strings of pasta frolla they did not fall inside
Another thing I will be trying next time is to drain the ricotta cheese with a
cheesecloth… looks like the ricotta here in the states is softer and more liquid
compared to the Italian one. So I will have to drain the ricotta.

19 comments March 19th, 2007

Coming Soon

I have bought a domain and I am building a website.  It’s not happening very quickly, and there’s nothing to see yet, but soon!

I am very grateful for Cristina hosting my blog on Expats In Italy, in space she pays for, but when you want to expand into lots of things, it isn’t fair to let someone else pay.

I’ll certainly announce anything that is about to happen, and I am hoping to leave a forwarding chiclet here, but it is not at all ready now.  I sincerely hope that anyone who comes here now will come to the new site.  My life includes you all now.

It will be at http://www.judithgreenwood.com when it comes.

13 comments March 19th, 2007

Mid-March

The last hem of winter’s skirts is brushing past us these days. People in Minnesota would laugh at us for saying it is cold, but it feels cold and humid. The heat has popped back on during the day. I don’t feel like going out into the garden under the windy gray skies, even though with a sweater it would be fine to do so.

Last week the windows were opened from mid-morning until sunset. Not now.

Still, it is nearly Easter and so I am thinking about what new things I can cook once Easter is come. I am almost at my goal of fitting everything well. I should be gradually adding complex carbohydrates to my diet soon.

What fits this weather? Soup, of course. Frittata. Roasted things and things with hearty sauces. All of the baked vegetable dishes we’ve ever cooked on these pages are ideal for this season of leeks, cabbages and potatoes. I would love to have polenta carbonara right now, but I have no interest at all in messing up my metabolism, which now can make adequate glucose to keep the old brain turning over.

The cherry tomatoes I bought last week were as sweet as strawberries in the mouth. The cucumber was disappointing. Last year the hydroponic cucumbers were very, very good. This year they are undistinguished. Did they change the variety? Or did Coop change the grower?

The non-cooking activities outweigh the cooking activities by a lot, currently. I bought a splendid remnant at market – three meters of beautiful upholstery fabric at one and a half meters wide for €20. That’s a buy for sure. I plan to make dresses for two antique chairs I have and use daily, which has them looking tatty. I haven’t yet found a good upholsterer and can’t afford to reupholster them right now, anyway. First I have to finish the banana colored linen bikini I started for one of them last year.

So, what’s cooking? Today it’s poached chicken. Poached chicken is not boiled chicken. You have to use a good, strongly flavored broth, for a start. Cover the chicken completely with the broth, bring to a simmer and cover it. Continue to simmer until it is just done. I use a thermometer to check doneness. Leaving it covered, turn off the heat and allow the chicken to cool in the broth. That’s it, folks. Fish is poached exactly the same way, using either fish broth or vegetable broth. Chicken will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days, but don’t try to keep poached fish more than a day. The quality of fish will plummet quickly.

Poached fish or chicken is flavorful and has a nice texture. It can be eaten as is in slices or cubes, or masked with a sauce and served cool, or it can be used in any dishes in which you use cooked chicken with a better result than chicken boiled to extract the flavor and make broth. One idea might be to use the broth to make risotto and serve the chicken in thin slices on top of it. You see? I wrote a whole sentence in which rice occurred without wincing.

I can imagine a country potpie made with either pastry or with a lid of browned mashed potatoes using poached chicken, too. You could cook some carrots, onions and peas in the broth, then thicken it for gravy, assemble it and bake it just before dinner. The next time you go to a potluck or a picnic, poach chicken and make chicken salad with it. Lots of very thin slices of celery—I heard recently that celery has a plant hormone very like male human hormones and therefore is appealing to women. Any recipe you like is fine. Perhaps a curried mayonnaise with a handful of raisins and some peanuts or cashews? I love chicken salad—always in chunks and never ground—with sliced and toasted almonds or white grapes. It’s easy to experiment, because you can always pull out a small amount and try a new ingredient before altering the whole batch without knowing you’ll like it.

My sister used to make what was called “Irish Chicken Hash.” It consisted of chunks of poached chicken, chunks of onion, chunks of parboiled potatoes, all in a buttered low baking dish. Salt and pepper, and then pour thick, heavy cream over it, add pieces of butter and bake slowly. It is delicate enough for an Irish duchess. I recommend it for underweight duchesses. Eat it with something green or something bright yellow/orange. I remember my now-departed brother-in-law pouring ketchup over it, as he did to most things, and to me that explains adequately why he didn’t reach sixty.

If all you want is a chicken sandwich with leaves of lettuce and lashings of mayonnaise, go ahead and I will try to forgive you.

4 comments March 19th, 2007