Marianne Tortola and her family now live in the Boston area, but hail from Miranda, a town not far from Isernia, in Molise, where the Pastiera is similar to the Neapolitan Pastiera, but made with rice rather than grain, and flavored with cinnamon water rather than orange water -- when she mentioned she made it to an Italian (living in Miranda) cousin, the cousin asked her if she could find cinnamon water in the U.S., and was much impressed when Marianne replied that she made her own.
Marianne uses her late mother Anne Pizzi's recipe, which she introduced to me with:
My mother treasured her Italian-American heritage until she passed away at age 92, as a cherished member of the Boston-Mirandese community. Her cooking was always very precise and she favored delicate textures and flavors. She definitely tweaked this recipe, using cream and the cinnamon water, (NEVER dried cinnamon!) She would always get fresh candied citron from Boston's North End shops, too, never the stuff in little plastic boxes....
....Pastiera is such a huge part of our Mirandese heritage, that a common Easter greeting among paesani is, "Did you make any pastiera this year?" Pastiera is just a dessert, but it is full of meaning, still something that we can all relate to after a century of immigration and diversity. At one time we were thinking about compiling recipes for a Mirandese cookbook. My cousins joked, "It will be fifty pages of Pastiera recipes!"
Alas, making a Pastiera from scratch takes time and effort, and though modern-day Mirandesi can simply stop in a local pastry shop to buy theirs (one of Marianne's cousins does), this is less of an option outside Miranda, where the ingredients -- especially cinnamon water -- are not so easy to come by. So, come Easter, Marianne and her husband Angelo make Pastiere Mirandesi for their community, treats to be enjoyed by both the elderly, who are no longer up to making themselves a pastiera, and by the younger generation, which "is becoming more interested in these traditional recipes."
Many thanks to both Marianne and her husband Angelo, a native Mirandese she describes as the "catalyst to continuing this tradition every year," for sharing Anne Pizzi's Pastiera recipe. Traditions are what define a community, and if they are kept alive the community will live too, even if the people who make it up spread across the globe.
Anne Pizzi’s Pastiera
My grandparents came to Boston from Italy in 1907, says Marianne Tortola, and La Pastiera came with them, as Easter comfort food, I imagine. My mother, Anne Pizzi, tweaked the recipe to make a delicious rich desert, made with rice, as customary in the small town of Miranda, Provincia Isernia in Molise, from where our ancestors come.
Filling:
- 2/3 cup (125 g) long grain rice
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) cinnamon water (see below note)
- 8 extra large eggs
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh citron
- 3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
- 1 cup (250 ml) light cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) whole milk
- A pinch of salt
Cook rice in salted water for 25 minutes. Drain, rinse and cool.
Beat eggs and add the rest of the ingredients. This mixture can stand in the fridge as long as overnight.
To make cinnamon water:
Place five or six cinnamon sticks in 2-quart (2-liter) saucepan and fill pan with cold water. Boil down until you have about a ½ cup of syrupy water for the pastiera.
Crust:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
- 1 beaten egg
- 1 cup (100 g) flour
Melt butter in small saucepan. Add sugar and dissolve. Add salt. Remove from heat. Add water and vanilla. Cool mixture before adding egg. Add flour and turn onto a floured board and roll out large enough to fit inside square 8 by 8-inch or 9 by 9-inch (20 by 20 or 22 by 22 cm) baking dish with an inch hanging over each side. (Trim if longer.)
Fill the shell crust with the egg mixture just full enough to carry it to the oven without spilling.
After placing baking dish on oven rack, carefully fill the rest of the shell with the remaining mixture.
Bake in a preheated 375 F (180 C) oven until golden and firm, about 90 minutes. When cool, score the crust at the line of the filling, so that you have neat presentation.
A couple of views of Miranda
