Nothing says Italian American Easter like a Pastiera di Grano, the traditional Neapolitan wheat grain pie! We’ve got a simple family recipe for you, with lots of alternative options for ingredients that might not be so easy to come by this year, so you can have one on your table no matter what!
Call them Pizza Chiena, Pizza Gran’, Grain Pies, or Pastiera… call them whatever you want but Easter Pies are an Italian American holiday staple, so join John Viola of the Italian American Podcast in the Cucina Quarantena for quick run down of how to make this Italian American classic under any circumstances! This is one of hundreds of different recipes out there… so if you DON’T have your own, maybe this will help. We hope you’ll give it a shot… and remember, family food is art not science… have fun and follow what inspires you.
Buona Pasqua Everybody!
John Viola’s Pastiera di Grano (Pizza Gran’ – Neapolitan grain pie)
*makes 2-3 pies from one 560 gram jar*
Ingredients:
– 2 frozen pie crusts (per pastiera) or your own pie crust or pasta frolla dough
– 1 jar (560 grams) “Grano Cotto” cooked wheat grain*
(alternatives- whole wheat berries soaked for 24 hours and cooked down, cooked and drained rice, or barley grains cooked for 30 minutes in milk)
– 1 cup whole milk
– 3 tablespoons butter
– zest of 2 lemons
– zest of 1 orange
– 2 lbs. fresh ricotta (drained of moisture)
– slightly less than 1.5 lbs. of sugar
– 9 eggs
– 3 egg yolks
– 1 packet “Vanillina” Italian vanilla baking powder*
(alternative- about a Teaspoon of vanilla extract)
– 1 Tablespoon orange blossom water*
(alternative – In a pinch, try very finely grated orange zest , 2-3 of drops of orange oil, or 2-3 Teaspoons of orange liqueur, such as Triple Sec)
– 1/2 Tablespoon cinnamon
– 1/2 Teaspoon Italian Aroma Millefiori concentrate*
– 1/2 Teaspoon Rose Water*
– 1 package (or, a few handfuls) candied citron or available candied citrus peel*
(alternatives- in a pinch, I know some people use chopped apricots, or finely dehydrated orange or lemon slices)
*NOTE- In the US most of these ingredients can be found in your local Italian deli or specialty shop, but in a pinch orange blossom and rose waters may be found in some Whole Foods stores, gourmet grocery stores, Middle Eastern or Indian grocery stores, or baking suppliers.
– Finely zest the skin of 2 lemon and 1 orange. Set aside.
– Empty cooked wheat grain into a sauce pan with the whole milk and butter.
– Mix the lemon and orange zest into the cooked wheat mixture and heat on the stove over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until it becomes creamy, stirring often. Remove from heat and let cool.
– In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta (drain as much of the liquid as possible) and sugar.
– Add the eggs and egg yolks.
– Add the vanilla extract (or vanillina powder if you have it), orange blossom water, cinnamon, and if you can find them, the Millefiori concentrate and rose water.
– Mix this into a fine mixture, and then add the fine zest of the other ½ of the orange and another lemon.
– Add chopped candied citron and/or peels.
– Pour the cooled cooked wheat into this mixture and mix until they’re combined.
– Pour the mixture into the piecrust.
– Roll out extra pie crust or dough and cut into lattice strips.
– Lay the latticework on top and seal the edges.
– Optionally, make an egg wash out of 1 egg whisked with cold milk or water. Brush on the top of the latticework before putting it into the oven.
– Bake in a preheated oven at 375 F for about an hour and a half, until you can pull a toothpick or skewer out of the center and it’s not wet.
– Turn the oven off and let it cool in there.
– Optionally, when pies are cooled, you can dust with powdered sugar. I think it takes away from the delicate flavor of the blossom waters, but that’s up to you!
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Original of the video here
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Video Transcription
ciao Pazhani buona Pasqua and greetingsfrom my Cucina quad on Tina I’m Johnviola from the italian-american podcastand I know everybody is home safe andsound and keeping their distance andit’s holy week and everybody knows anitalian-american family really takesseriously their Easter traditions Easterpies grain pies meat pies breads and soI figured I would collect what I havehere I’m lucky that my family hoards andwe have a lot of the ingredients youneed for great Neapolitan pasta but Iwanted to share with you some tips andalternatives in case you don’t ways thatyou could make this even in thedifficult times that we’re facing sojoin me in the kitchen and we’re gonnamake the best version of pusti Etta wecan what’s at hand so if we’re talkinggrain pie grain is the star of the showthis is gonna cultural from Italy it’s aboiled grain we have a bunch of them inthe house I’m gonna use the jar thisyear but you can also use the cans it’sjust a different size same product justmake sure you’re planning youringredients accordingly there below nowif you can get your hands on it thetraditional method is real wheat berriesyou got to soak them for 24 hours andthen cook them in fresh water for aboutthree hours Plus unlike a low heat andthere’s alternatives listed below if youcan’t get either but no matter what kindof grain you’re using the whole thingstarts with the citrus so you can assessthe skin of one full orange and two fulllemons as you can see my Sicilianmothers got blood oranges here but it’sall the same put those in a bowl setthose aside for a couple of steps laternow in a saucepan you’re just gonnabring 3 tablespoons of butter and a cupof whole milk heat them up and then ingoes your grain okay and then you cansee this is Grand underwatersome people say dry it out I put itright in it’s really nice and soft justget that in there and break it all upmake sure that you can mix it in goodand you’re gonna try to get it to acreamy consistency sort of like a littlebit like custardy so add in your citrusand then for about 10 to 12 minutesyou’re gonna cook it on medium heat justto make sure it gets nice and creamy andyou’ll feel the texture sort of thickenafter that just turn it off and let itcool and in your mixer mix three poundsof ricotta which you should dry out andlet it get a little dry and about apound and a half the less of sugar andit’s the eggs we got nine whole eggs andthree egg yolks so this is a really richpie now this blasted together in yourmixer and now here’s where the signatureflavor prosthetic comes from it’s theseflour waters and orange blossom waterthis is the center of attention butrosewater is the old old way to do itand I still use some this is vanillaextract but usually I would use theNeapolitan vanilla powder packets but Ican’t get my hands on this year so alittle bit of that millefiori is anotherflower flavor and then of course thecinnamon which Pat would say is tooSicilian first taste but for me it’s oneof the stars so we’re gonna use 1/2 atablespoon of cinnamon a full tablespoonof orange blossom water you get a littlemore a little less than a teaspoon ofvanilla a half a teaspoon of themiller-urey and a half a teaspoon ofrosewater and that should be it for yourflavors now comes my mother’s favoritepart this is the candied citron orjedidah in Italian and candied orangepeels so you can get this if they’redice like this or you can get thecomplete one sometimes sometimes you getit in the store already chopped but forme it’s just chopped up as much as youlike that’s a great texture and anamazing flavor and again in a pinch I’mjust gonna list some really interestingalternatives down below so once it’scooled you’re gonna take your creamedgrain and you’re gonna get that in thereand then one final mix just to geteverything together now as I saidcertain things are premium so I can’tget lard this year flours really toughto find so I’m gonna use some frozen piecrusts we have but I still want atraditional puss theater so I’m gonnaroll out one of those crusts into mystrips just roll it nice and thinbetween two pieces of wax paper then ittake what I guess is my Nonna’s raviolimaker I don’t even know what this thingis but you can use a knife whatever youhave and then just make some interestingstrips and you can make the lattice workbeforehand on the wax paper this is kindof a personal artistic touch some peopleput a full top some people put designsbut it’s my least favorite part so I tryto use this as little as possible thenyou just fill your pie crust and kind ofto the top I always overfill a littlebit but that’s okay you can plop on thelattice make sure it didn’t get screwedup and that’s itnot so bad and just pinch the edges toget everything together and what I’malso gonna do is because my family likesa bigger prosthetic we have thisheirloom tin I’m gonna roll out a couplemore of the pie crust that I have frozenand I’m just gonna stuff them in thereand and fill the tin so really you knowyou could fill patches you can be alittle bit rustic with this it’s soulfood it doesn’t have to be beautifuljust get everything in make sure thecorners are pressed and then I’m gonnalattice this one with a little bit moreof a sort of oven criss cross add somestructure you can really do whatever youlikejust make sure when you’re done youpinch the edges together get everythingin there nice and tight and you’re readyfor your baking so at 375 degree ovenfor about an hour and a half you’re kindof know by looking at it you’ll get thatbeautiful golden top and a skewer ortoothpick will go in and come out withno liquid on it when that’s it yep I seeit it’s done so here’s our end result -beautiful golden brown Italian Americangrain pies pasta pizza gun I call themwhat you want but it’s great to havethem on the Easter table in my family inthese difficult times so as you can seehere may do what we had in the housesubstituted a few ingredients thatwouldn’t normally be in here and for youguys out there who are trying to do thisat home maybe to keep up a traditionmaybe to start a tradition I know it’stough to get ingredients so what we’regonna do is I’m gonna give you my recipedown here in the description but I’malso gonna give you a little bit ofoptionality on the ingredientssubstitutions that you can make stuffthat I’ve heard other people use stufflittle tastes the same remember I’m nota professional chef like Rosella but Ido my best to keep the traditions in myfamily and I hope you do the same foryoursso what’s most important it’s not thatyou stick to a particular recipeget creative usually you have what ismost important is that you take the timewith whatever families in the house dosome baking put something traditional onthe table and keep the tradition aliveso thanks for watching you can watch ourother videos our greetings from ItalianAmerica and everything else we’ve beendoing during the lockdown if you wantwe’re gonna put a link to our t-shirt ifyou feel lucky to be Italian you canhave one too all the money that we raiseright now is going to support hospitalsin the south of Italy so thanks forwatching us and we’ll see you next timein the italian-american podcast