PASTIERA NAPOLETANA (Easter Pie) 10 Inch Size
La Pastiera is a delicious ricotta cheese and grain pie, a very old Neapolitan specialty for the Easter season. It is made from a recipe which has two particular ingredients, making it unique: moisture taken from the orange tree blossom (also known to the Italians as "acqua di arance" or "fior di arance") and cooked wheat. This classic Neapolitan pastry has a sweet crust ("pasta frolla") filled with ricotta, candied fruit, pastry cream and cooked wheat berries, and is scented with orange flower water.
PASTIERA INFO (Size, how to serve and the best way to store it):
Available in its traditional 10 inch diameter round size only.
Pastiera needs to be kept refrigerated and typically lasts for a week. It is best served at room temperature.
Pastiera is best enjoyed one to three days after it is baked, so the different flavors can blend into a heavenly mix, allowing the fragrances to mix properly and result in that unique flavor. Therefore, pastiera is traditionally made on Good Thursday or Good Friday to be had as a dessert on Easter Sunday.
STORE PICK UP ONLY:
Please keep in mind that we DO NOT ship the Pastiera. We do not offer delivery either. We do not give refunds to those who did not pick up their Pastiera prepaid order.
It will be available for pick-up on Saturday (6am-2pm), the day before Easter Sunday. We are closed on Easter Sunday.
You may place your online prepaid orders early and we will reserve the Pastiera for you to pick up on Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday.
THE STORY:
The modern pastiera was probably invented in a Neapolitan convent. An unknown nun wanted that cake, symbol of the Resurrection, to have the perfume of the flowers of the orange trees which grew in the convent’s gardens. She mixed a handful of wheat to the white ricotta cheese, and then she added some eggs, symbol of the new life, some water which had the fragrance of the flowers of the spring time, candied citron and aromatic Asian spices.
So it should come as no surprise that a pie filled with wheat berries is an almost obligatory part of the Easter menu in most of southern Italy. Though the official name of this pie is Pastiera Napoletana, many Italian Americans also refer to it as Pizza di Grano -- meaning grain or wheat pie.