There’s not much else one can say about the deliciousness of a chocolate Easter egg – whether it’s milk or dark chocolate doesn’t matter. And we have nothing to object over when it comes to the Easter colomba, either. But the Neapolitan pastiera? Have you tried it? Well, any dessert pales in comparison – Easter or not. But how did this cake and its unique tradition come about?
Pagan origins?
The richness of the ingredients and the complexity of the flavors seem to recall traditional court cuisine. But the incredible is always rooted in myth. And we must take a step back to Roman, or perhaps, even Greek times. When – according to legend – the mermaid Partenope chose the Gulf of Naples as her home, from where her melodious and sweet voice spread across the ocean. To thank her, a mysterious cult celebrated with a feast, during which the population brought the siren seven gifts: flour, a symbol of wealth; ricotta cheese, a symbol of abundance; eggs, which represented fertility; wheat cooked in milk, to symbolize the fusion of animal and vegetable kingdoms; orange blossoms (or other citrus fruits, since the spread of oranges at that time was very limited in Europe – a fact, among other things, which raises many doubts about the real historical validity of the legend...), to symbolize the scent of the land of Campania; spices, an homage from all worshippers; and sugar, to celebrate the sweetness of the siren song. Parthenope liked the gifts but mixed them to create this unique sweet.
Rituals
This is just a legend, of course. But it is certain that to celebrate the return of spring, the priestesses of Ceres carried an egg in their processions, a symbol of birth and the “rebirth” (or the Christian Resurrection). Wheat or spelt flour, mixed with the soft cream of ricotta cheese, could instead come from the spelt bread of the typical Roman wedding. Another hypothesis suggests that the pastiera dates back to the ritual buns of the time of Constantine, derived from the offering of milk and honey that the catechumens received during baptism on Easter night.
In San Gregorio Armeno
The ancestors of the dessert that we now know remain uncertain, however – ancestors that, in all probability, created the cake much later on in the 16th century. In a convent, like most Neapolitan sweets. Probably at San Gregorio Armeno. An unknown nun wanted to prepare a cake capable of associating the Christianized symbolism of ingredients such as eggs, ricotta, and wheat, combining spices from Asia and the scent of orange blossoms from the convent garden. What is certain is that the nuns of the convent of San Gregorio Armeno were true masters in the preparation of pastries, which they then gave to the aristocratic families of the city. "When the servants went to collect them on behalf of their masters," says the writer and gastronome Loredana Limone, "from the door of the convent that a nun with a smell of millefiori opened with circumspection, a trail of perfume came out and crept into the alleyways around and, spreading into the lowlands, gave consolation to the poor people for whom that heavenly aroma was the testimony of the Lord's presence.” It is said that even the shady Queen Maria Theresa of Austria, “the Queen who never laughs,” consort of the gluttonous Ferdinand II of Bourbon, let a smile slip after a bite at the beloved pastiera. "To make my wife smile, we needed the pastiera. Now I’ll have to wait until next Easter to see her smile again,” commented Ferdinand.
The recipe
As for the true recipe of the Neapolitan pastiera, however, everyone says his or her own is the right one and the debate is strong – even in the land of Naples. The classic recipe involves the preparation of a shortbread pastry dough made with flour, eggs, lard (or butter) and caster sugar to be placed on the ‘ruoto,’ the typical aluminum cake tin with smooth and slightly flared edges, about 3-5 cm high. The oldest ruoto, however, made it possible to prepare larger pastries – since it was as high as 10 cm! For the filling, you need milk, sugar, sheep’s milk ricotta cheese, wheat flour, butter, candied fruit, eggs, vanilla, the peels of an orange and a lemon, orange blossom water, and cinnamon powder. All to be topped with strips of pastry dough and baked in the oven, sprinkled with powdered sugar at the end.
The wheat: authentically raw or processed?
A first doubt concerns the whole-wheat flour. Today, pre-cooked wheat is by far the most practical solution, but the pastiera is even more authentic if you use "normal" wheat grains, soaked in warm water for several days. The next day, the wheat for the cream will be cooked together with milk, lemon peel, sugar, cinnamon, a vanilla pod and a teaspoon of clarified butter. Until the wheat has absorbed all the liquid. Some recipes even prefer the blended wheat to the grains; others are divided in half: half wheat in grains and half blended. Cinnamon, moreover, often appears as an optional ingredient. In the version of the historic Starace shop (sadly no longer existing) in Piazza Municipio, the ricotta was not combined with eggs – but with a refined custard instead. According to tradition, the pastiera should be prepared on Holy Thursday and eaten on Easter, to give all the flavors enough time to blend together.