Pastizzi recipe

A lard-laminated dough stretched paper thin, coiled and pinched into an open diamond around ricotta or curried peas.

4 hours and 10 minuteshard7 ingredients

Ingredients

• 250 g lard
• 500 g plain flour
• 200 ml water
• 500 g ricotta
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp white pepper

How to make Pastizzi

1. Mix 500 g of plain flour, 200 ml of water and 1 tsp of salt into a firm smooth dough, knead 10 minutes and rest it covered for 1 hour: that rest is what lets it stretch later.
2. Roll the dough out thin, smear it with a third of 250 g of soft lard, roll it into a tight rope, coil the rope and rest it 30 minutes.
3. Repeat the smear, roll and coil twice more, resting in between: these three laminations build the leaves that make a pastizz, and a crumbly shortcrust is simply another pastry.
4. Cut the coil into walnut-sized pieces, press each flat and stretch it by hand into a very thin round, almost see through.
5. Beat 500 g of ricotta with 1 egg, 1 tsp of white pepper and a pinch of salt; for the other classic filling, cook soaked dried peas down with onion and curry spice until thick.
6. Put a spoonful of filling in the middle, bring two opposite sides over it and pinch the two ends shut, leaving the diamond open at the top.
7. Bake at 200 °C for 30 minutes, until the layers separate visibly and the outside is deep golden.
8. Eat them hot from the hand, the way they are sold at the pastizzerija.

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