Pastiera Napoletana

Ingredients

• 330g plain flour
• 165g cold butter, diced
• 130g caster sugar, for the pastry
• 1 egg plus 2 yolks, for the pastry
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Pinch of salt
• 300g cooked wheat berries (grano cotto)
• 200ml whole milk
• 25g butter, for the wheat
• Zest of 1 orange, pared in strips
• 350g sheep's ricotta, drained
• 300g caster sugar, for the filling
• 3 eggs plus 2 yolks, for the filling
• 70g mixed candied citrus peel, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp orange blossom water
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• Icing sugar, to finish

Before you cook

• Drain the ricotta in a sieve in the fridge for 12 hours.
• Stir the drained ricotta together with its 300g of sugar and leave it covered in the fridge overnight.
• Finely chop the candied peel.
• Pare the orange zest into wide strips.

Steps

1. Rub the cold butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse sand.
2. Add the 130g sugar, the lemon zest and the salt and mix them through.
3. Work in the egg and two yolks until the dough just clumps together.
4. Press the dough into a flat disc, wrap it and chill it for at least 2 hours.
5. Put the cooked wheat, milk, 25g butter and orange zest strips in a small pan.
6. Simmer the wheat gently for 25 minutes, stirring often, until it is thick and creamy.
7. Fish out the zest strips and leave the wheat to cool completely.
8. Beat the sweetened ricotta until it is completely smooth.
9. Beat in the eggs and yolks one at a time.
10. Stir in the cooled wheat, the cinnamon, the orange blossom water and the candied peel.
11. Heat the oven to 160C.
12. Roll out three quarters of the pastry and line a 26cm deep tin, pressing it well up the sides.
13. Pour in the filling and level it, leaving a centimetre clear at the rim.
14. Roll the remaining pastry and cut it into seven strips about 2cm wide.
15. Lay the strips over the filling in two crossing directions to make diamonds.
16. Press the strip ends onto the pastry rim and trim them neatly.
17. Bake the pastiera for 1 hour 30 minutes, until the top is bronzed and the filling barely wobbles.
18. Turn the oven off and leave the tart inside with the door ajar for 30 minutes.
19. Cool the pastiera completely in its tin.
20. Keep it at room temperature for two days before cutting, then dust it with icing sugar.