Italian Cakes - Easter?

Question

Many years ago, my aunt would bring a cake to Easter dinner that was made with barley and cream, and was denser than cheesecake.
Does anyone have the receipe?

Answer 1

That's for sure la PASTIERA NAPOLITANA.
That's the link to the official Italian site devoted to this cake and its original recipe.
http://www.pastiera.com/

PASTIERA'S RECIPE:
Ingredients for the Pastiera for 12 people:
1 kg pre packed frozen short pastry
700 gr ricotta cheese
600 gr sugar
400 gr of boiled wheat ( you can easily find cans in any supermarket)
80 gr crystallized citron
80 gr crystallized orange
a dash cinnamon
100 gr milk
30 gr butter or lard
5 eggs and 2 egg yolks
a spoon full of vanilla
a spoon of orange flavoured water
1 lemon

PREPARATION:
Let the short pastry defrost in room temperature, pour the wheat, the milk, the butter and 1 lemon grated peel in a casserole pan; let it cook for 10 minutes and often stir the ingredients til they become cream.

In another pan whip the ricotta cheese, the sugar, 5 eggs, 2 egg yolks, a spoon of vanilla, a spoon of orange flavoured water, and a dash of cinnamon. Mix everything until the dough is very thin.

Then add some grated lemon peel and diced crystallized orange and citron. Mix everything to the wheat. Spread either the homemade or frozen short pastry with a pin until it’s ½ cm thick. Put the short pastry in a 30 cm wide pan, but make sure you spread some butter on it before.Cut the exceeding edges off, spread them with a pin and cut the short pastry in strips. Pour the mixture of the ricotta cheese and the other ingredients in the pan, and fold the borders of the short pastry inwards. Then put the short pastry strips on the ingredients. Dust the Pastiera with icing sugar before serving.

Answer 2

This one sounded most like what you were after:

(Easter cake or Neapolitan Easter tart - Traditional recipe)
Time: preparation: 60 minutes
........ cooking: 50 - 60 minutes


1 420 g can pre-cooked wheat grains
1 10 g glass tube of orange-flower essence
or "Millefiori" flavouring
250 ml (8 fl oz - 1 C) milk
175 g (6 1/2 oz) butter
Grated rind of 1 orange or 1 lemon
550 g (1 1/4 lb) ricotta cheese
7 eggs
590 g (21 oz) sugar
1 tablespoon powdered vanilla
350 g (12 oz) white flour
Pinch of salt
Icing sugar to garnish
50 g (2 oz) candied fruit