Casatiello or Easter's Stuffed Bread

Casatiello is a traditional Italian recipe from Naples that is usually prepared for Easter. Casatiello is a sort of stuffed bread with cheese and salami, in particular you can use provolone cheese, silano cheese or pecorino cheese with the addition of salami, bologna and bacon. It is characterized for the presence on its surface of eggs. Casatiello is ideal for short trip and it is delicious either warm or cold.

INGREDIENTS:

500 g of Flour

25g of Brewer’s Yeast

50 g of lard

200 ml of Warm water

Salt

200 g of cheese in small cubes (Silano or Provolone cheese)

200 g of Salami in small cubes ( salame and bologna)

3 eggs

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes plus the time for leavening

COOKING TIME: 40 minutes

WINE: Aglianico (red wine)

PREPARATION

Dissolve the brewer’s yeast in the warm water, place the flour, the lard and salt in a bowl mix them together. Add in the middle the water 

and start to knead the ingredients in order to obtain homogeneous dough. 

Let it stand for about 2-3 hours or until it becomes double.

Stand the dough, remove a little pieces that you will need later. Cover its surface with the mixture of  silano cheese, salame and bologna. 

Roll the dough and make a sort or ring-shape cake. 

Place casatiello on a baking pan, better if you have the baking pan that you used to cook the ring-shape cake. Place on the surface of the casatiello the 3 raw eggs 

and cover them with little pieces of the dough as shown in the picture. 

Preheat the oven at 200 degree, bake casatiello for about 40 minutes. Serve it warm or cold

BUON APPETITO!

Cake of Carnival - Migliaccio

The name of this Italian dessert is "Migliaccio". Migliaccio is a traditional cake of Naples that is usually prepared in occasion of Carnival. Its preparation is very easy and it doesn't need a lot of time. The preparation of this Italian cake remind me a little bit the preparation of Pastiera, another Italian dessert traditional of Naples, but in this case it is more easy and you need less ingredients. The main ingredients for Migliaccio are semolina and ricotta cheese, you can use ricotta cheese from cow or from sheep according to your taste. Thanks to the presence of simple Italian ingredients, children that love Carnival appreciate this Italian cake too.

INGREDIENTS:

250g of semolina

1L of milk

Peel of orange

30g of butter

350 g of Ricotta Cheese

6 eggs

200g of Sugar

10g of Vanilia

Icing sugar

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes plus the time necessary to let the mixture cool down

COOKING TIME: 1 hour

WINE: Malvasia

PREPARATION

Pour in a soup pot the milk; start to stir with a wooden spoon while adding the semolina. If you want you can use a whisk in order to avoid lumps. Add the peel of an orange and let the milk warm up.

Continue to stir, when the mixture start to become firm remove the peel of orange and continue to cook the semolina until it will have a thick and homogeneous consistency. 

 

Add a piece of butter, mix and let the semolina get cold.

In a large bowl mix the ricotta cheese with the eggs. 

Stir until the ingredients are well combined, then add the sugar and mix. 

When the semolina get cold add it to the bowl and mix.

Butter the bottom of a baking pan and pour the mixture. Bake the cake in pre-warmed oven and cook at 180 degree for 1 hour more or less. 

Check the cooking time by time, the cake will be ready when the surface becomes golden.

BUON APPETITO!