It may seem weird but in Campania also pasta, the classic one of durum wheat, lends itself well to making simple and tasty desserts. The symbol of a whole region in the world, always seasoned with all different kinds of sauces and condiments, has never given in to the blandishments of sugary flavors. It is so much so that, even to people from Campania themselves, it seems almost a blasphemy combining any kind of pasta, from rigatoni to spaghetti, with cake texture.
Ph. Machi di Pace
As in every rule, though, there are exceptions. Let’s do it in order: what is the most famous cake in Easter tradition in Naples and in Campania? Pastiera no doubt!And which is the main ingredient of Pastiera without which we couldn’t even stay here talking about it??Wheat. Everything else, from eggs to milk to flavorings, follows on from that.
Let’s continue quickly on our path: what can be obtained from wheat?Simple: pasta. One question will complete the circle: why don’t try to put pasta instead of cooked wheat since we are always talking about the same world?
That’s crazy? Not at all!Who has been lucky to taste Pastiera of pasta is well aware of this. Are you thinking about a kind of frittata filled with cheeses, cured meats and pepper? Nothing could be more wrong: here we are talking about a real dessert born from the poor tradition of cuisine in Campania which, though, didn’t get the same “media” support as its more blazoned variation with wheat. A dish which tells country identity of people who couldn’t really afford to throw away anything, let alone pasta cooked the day before - during Easter Sunday - and left-over in the pot. The idea comes from here: let’s make a cake instead of a frittata.
Ph. Machi di Pace
“Tagliolini” or the thinner “capellini d’angelo” are the basic pasta to be cooked in salted water ( or else the argument about the day before leftovers may amount to no more than a bluff) to let them stand inside the pot or,in case of purists who don’t forget classic Pastiera origin, in a bowl of milk. Meanwhile mix beaten eggs with sugar and flavorings, the typical ones for Pastiera: vanilla, millefiori essence, candied fruit, cinnamon. Once ready add pasta to the mixture, to pour it into a greased baking pan, to put it into the oven and staying there ready to enjoy/savor one of the most amazing traditional recipes this part of Italy has ever given birth to.
Birth that is lost in the most ancient traditions. Where Pastiera is born is not sure, as everything relating to farming history. Everyone takes, literally, their “little piece” of merit: who talks about Vesuvius area, in particular the coastal area of Torre del Greco, who,instead, about the north of Caserta, where sometimes there is the addition of a shortcrust pastry disk as basis into the greased baking pan; who pinpoints its origin among the mountains surrounding Avellino, an area rich in enogastronomic traditions.
Despite the uncertainty of its origin, one thing is sure: this sweet heritage of past memory deserves to be brought back to mind and taste. A memory of Easter days, when spring started to knock on farmsteads’ doors shyly and Mother Earth woke up from its numbness. The Flavorings, the smell, the taste of this Pastiera - merged with the most famous ones of its classic “cousin” - greet so the awakening season.