Italian Food Recipes

Pastiera di Grano

A traditional sweet tart made with ricotta and cooked wheat.

  • - 840g Cooked Wheat - Grano Cotto
  • - 700g Shortcrust Pastry (made using 200g Flour, 200g Butter, 200g Sugar, 3 eggs)
  • - 1 Lemon
  • - 1 tbsp Orange Flower Water
  • - 1tsp Vanillin
  • - 4 Eggs
  • - 20g Butter
  • - 75gr Milk
  • - 140g Candied Fruit
  • - 400g Sugar Eridania
  • - 500g Ricotta
VegetarianOrganic Organic
To make the pastry: Put the sugar, butter and eggs in a bowl and beat until smooth. Slowly add the flour until all the ingredients combine to form a smooth dough. Leave to rest for 20 minutes while you make the filling.

To make the filling: Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Put the cooked wheat, butter, milk and grated lemon rind into a pan. Heat up for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture has a creamy consistency.

In a bowl combine the ricotta and sugar, the eggs, vanilla and orange flower water using a electric mixer. Next, add the candied peel, some more grated lemon rind and a dash of cinnamon if you have it.

Roll out the pastry onto a floured work surface. Line and grease a 25cm wide cake tin, a spring-clip metal cake tin would be best. Lift the pastry into the tin, trimming and folding over the edges to make a neat rim. Put aside the left over pastry.

Combine together the cooled down wheat and the ricotta mixtures and stir well. Carefully pour into the pastry case. Take the left over pastry and make a criss-cross design over the top using strips of pastry.

Carefully brush the pastry rim and strips with milk and put into the oven for about 1 hr and 15 minutes.

When the Pastiera is cooked and has cooled down, sprinkle over some icing sugar before serving.