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The working recipe — the Market List, the Method, and where it lives or dies
I
Origin
Naples, Campania
II
Description
Naples' Easter cake — one of Italy's most historically rooted pastries, made from a short pastry shell filled with a mixture of cooked wheat berries (grano cotto), ricotta, sugar, eggs, candied citron and orange peel, and orange flower water. The wheat berries are pre-cooked and slowly simmered in milk with lard and orange peel the day before. The filling must include both the ricotta mixture and the wheat — neither alone constitutes pastiera. The orange flower water is the defining aromatic — its floral, slightly medicinal character is unmistakeable and irreplaceable.
III
The Thread
—Easter grain-based cake with citrus and floral water — Greek uses semolina; Neapolitan uses whole wheat berries Greek
—Easter dairy-and-grain dessert with candied fruit and floral aromatics — quark vs ricotta; pressed vs baked; same Easter-dairy-fruit tradition Russian · (Orthodox)
—Grain cooked in milk with aromatic flower water as a ceremonial preparation — rose water vs orange flower water; rice vs wheat; same sacred-festival register Persian
IV
Flavour Context
Orange flower water floral intensity; wheat berry chewiness; ricotta creaminess; candied citrus; short pastry; Easter ceremonial register
Pillars V — VII
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