Easter Ricotta Rice Pie with Raspberry Glaze
Growing up, my memories from an Italian-American Easter included butter shaped like a lamb, sweet bread studded with dried fruits (baked in a coffee can) and homemade ricotta pie. While my Nana's version was the straightforward cheesecake type pie, I've always wanted to make a traditional rice pie. Called pastiera, it's usually filled with arborio rice, ricotta, lemon or orange zest in a sweet pie crust. Apparently this is an Americanized version of the traditional Pastiera di Grano eaten on Easter in Italy, featuring wheatberries or farro instead of rice.
Since both Easter and #berrylove were coming up, I decide to make a pastiera but feature raspberries in addition to citrus. I referenced both FoodBlogga's Traditional Italian Easter Rice Pie and Mary Ann Esposito's Neapolitian Ricotta & Rice Pie (great tip on grating frozen butter with box grater when making crust!) for guidance. I ended up making my version a bit healthier, using less sugar, butter and eggs, using some whole wheat pastry flour and of course, adding lots and lots of fresh raspberries.
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Easter Rice Pie with Raspberry Glaze
- Yield: 16 slices 1x
Description
An Italian Easter tradition.
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
- 3 - 4 tablespoons ice water
For the filling:
- 2 cups lowfat milk
- 1 cup uncooked arborio (short grain) rice
- 16 ounces ricotta cheese, drained
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 2 teaspoons orange extract
- 3 eggs, slightly beaten
- 2 cups fresh raspberries
For the raspberry glaze:
- 3 cups fresh raspberries
- ¼ cup fresh orange juice (from one large orange)
- 3 tablespoons honey
Instructions
For the crust:
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, orange zest and salt. Grate the chilled butter and cut into flour mix (butter should form little balls.)
- Slowly add in ice cold water, mixing until a dough ball forms. Wrap in saran wrap and chill in refrigerator until filling is ready.
- Grease a 10-inch springform pan or 10-inch round cake pan. Roll dough out onto a floured surface into a 12-inch circle. Place in pan and press up and over edges of pan. Set aside until ready to fill.
For the filling:
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, bring 2 cups of milk to barely a boil, add rice, stir and reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for 20 - 25 minutes (no need to continually stir or add liquid as you usually do when making risotto.) Cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, add cooled rice, sugar, butter, ricotta, orange zest and orange extract. Mix well. Add eggs and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In bottom of pie crust lined pan, cover the bottom with 2 cups of raspberries. Pour ricotta rice mixture on top. Bake for 55 - 60 minutes or until ricotta rice filling is set.
For the raspberry glaze:
- While the pie cooks, make the glaze by adding 2 cups raspberries, orange juice and honey to a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens and reduces (cook for about ½ hour.)
- Remove from stove and gently mix in remaining 1 cup raspberries.
- When serving, pour a few spoonfuls of raspberry glaze atop each pie slice.
Oh WOW! Looks amazing 🙂
Thanks Francesca - I can't wait to make it again this year 🙂
Oh my gosh, most people have never even heard of pastiera! I love the stuff! It has always been my favorite dessert, and since I moved away from home my very sweet Nonna sends me her homemade pastiera in the mail every Easter. I have never tried making it myself though. This healthier version looks delicious!
LOVE hearing this story - and that's one special mail delivery from your Nonna for sure! Do you know what kind of rice she uses? You should try to make it - if you can make a pie, you can make this 🙂
You know, I don't think she uses rice at all. Whenever I've asked her about it, she says she gets it from a can. She is very old school, and doesn't have internet, so she has her relatives send it over from Italy. I think it is granno cotto, a cooked wheat that comes in a can.
The way Nonna makes it, there are actually small pieces of diced orange peel in it. I think that is interesting because every other recipe I've seen uses zest. I'm guessing she has just never owned a zester, or maybe that is how her mother did it as well. Either way, it is amazing stuff.
This looks like a perfect pie to make for Easter, I am so glad I came across it 🙂
Fascinated by this cooked wheat in a can - I need to find this! And love her addition of diced orange peel which like you said was probably out of necessity (no zester) vs. trying to be gourmet. So fun to have this dialogue with you - why I love food bloggers 🙂