Pastiera Napoletana Recipe

It wouldn’t be a proper Easter dinner in Naples without a pastiera napoletana for dessert, as essential to the Neapolitan Easter as struffoli are to Christmas. This wheatberry and ricotta pie is wonderfully perfumed with orange blossom water, cinnamon and candied fruits, a kind of ne plus ultra version of the everyday ricotta A pastiera is not particularly difficult to make, but it does require some “exotic” ingredients you’re not likely to find in a typical supermarket outside Italy, namely grano cotto (pre-cooked wheatberries) and the orange blossom water. The candied fruits can also be hard to come by. But there are sources and work arounds. (See notes for A proper pastiera also requires some patience. Customarily,…