Main Pastiera di riso rice pudding pastry for Easter Napoli Italian from Italy original easy version recipe with rice pudding for the whole family and your Easter Brunch or Lunch perfect cake

Pastiera di riso – Italian rice pudding cake

Getting ready for Easter with an Italian recipe for Pastiera di Riso

Rezept auf deutsch hier

Are you already in the Easter mood? Decorating your home with bunnies, eggs, and flowers? We are all going to be stuck at home this year, which gives us time to make a slightly more elaborate cake than usual. Like my own version of an Italian classic Easter recipe: pastiera di riso, an italian rice pudding cake.

The original recipe calls for grano cotto (cooked wheat), a high number of eggs, a huge quantity of sugar, a good amount of ricotta cheese, candied orange zest and so on plenty of time.

My version is more of an easy and quick fix, using ingredients that are widely available and a preparation that won’t have you go crazy. My pastiera di riso, alias rice pudding pastry cake, is perfect for your Easter Brunch and many other occasions. Serve at room temperature or cold from the fridge and let me know how you enjoyed it in the comments below!

Pastiera di riso rice pudding pastry for Easter Napoli Italian from Italy original easy version recipe with rice pudding for the whole family and your Easter Brunch or Lunch perfect cake
Italian classic made easy

Ingredients for Italian Rice Pudding Cake:

  • 200g rice (Arborio, for rice pudding) *
  • 500ml milk of your choice
  • 1 tonka bean (substitute with vanilla or cinnamon if you prefer)
  • 500g flour
  • 5 eggs
  • 150g sugar
  • 50g palm sugar (or brown sugar)
  • 200g butter, cold
  • 400g ricotta
  • 100ml cream
  • 1tsp almond extract (or lemon zest or any other flavouring of your choice)
  • 1 pinch of grounded cinnamon
  • icing sugar to decorate
Pastiera di riso rice pudding pastry for Easter Napoli Italian from Italy original easy version recipe with rice pudding for the whole family and your Easter Brunch or Lunch perfect cake
Pastiera di riso

Instructions:

  1. Start by cooking the rice (200g): put it in a pan with the milk (500ml) and the tonka bean and let it come to a boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer until it has absorbed almost all the milk, but is still creamy. Remember to mix it frequently and to keep an eye on it. Let it cool down completely (you can spread it out on a plate to make it quicker).
  2. Prepare the dough by kneading together (with a machine if you like) the flour (500g), eggs (3), sugars (100g+50) an butter (200g in cubes).
  3. Line a quiche baking form (or a regular round cake tin) with baking paper and place the dough in it. You can roll it out with a rolling pin, or simply use your hands to flatten out half of the dough on the bottom of the tin, 1/4 of it on the sides. Keep 1/4 of the dough aside (in the fridge) for the topping.
  4. Preheat the oven at 170C (fan modus).
  5. In a bowl whisk the ricotta (400g), cream (100g), 1 tsp of almond extract, sugar (50g), 1 egg and 1 yolk until well blended.
  6. Add the cooled down milk rice (remove the tonka bean) and amalgamate with a spoon or spatula.
  7. Pour the filling into the cake tin filled with pastry.
  8. Roll out the remaining dough and cut stripes of approximately 2cm. Place them on top of the filling in a criss-cross pattern.
  9. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until dry in the middle (try with a wooden stick).
  10. Once it has cooled down, take it out carefully from the tin and sprinkle with icing sugar.
  11. Serve room temperature or chilled
  12. Store in the fridge if you have left overs.
  13. Enjoy!
Italian Rice Pudding Pastry

What are you going to serve on your Easter table? I would love to know, just comment below!

If you are looking for something savory, my herby ricotta bread is the perfect low carb treat for your brunch!

12 thoughts on “Pastiera di riso – Italian rice pudding cake”

    1. Laura

      Danke liebe Iris! Ich habe es auch das erste mal gemacht und das Original Rezept ein wenig abgeändert, da ich es nicht zu üppig oder süß wollte. Das ergebnis war sehr gut!
      Schönen Sonntag!

      Reply
  2. Heike

    Liebe Laura,
    der sieht wirklich super lecker aus! Ich liebe Milchreiskuchen und deine Version trifft genau meinen Geschmack! Oh je, jetzt hab ich ganz schlimmes Hunger aus Kuchen ?
    Liebe Grüße,
    Heike

    Reply
  3. Juliane

    Wow Laura,
    das ist ein richtiges Träumchen! Das sollte ich unbedingt einmal ausprobieren… Ich wünsche dir einen sonnigen Sonntag, Juliane

    Reply
  4. Kathrina

    Liebe Laura,
    Milchreiskuchen habe ich noch nie gegessen, aber von deinem würde ich sofort ein Stück nehmen. Sieht sehr sehr lecker aus.
    Vielen Dank für deinen tollen Beitrag zum Blogevent.
    Liebe Grüße,
    Kathrina

    Reply
  5. Rebekka

    Liebe Laura,
    deine Bilder finde ich wirklich klasse, aber noch viel interessanter finde ich es eine echter italienische Osterspezialität zu sehen. Super interessant. Wie feiert ihr in Italien Ostern?
    Ganz liebe Grüße
    Rebekka

    Reply
    1. Laura

      Danke dir Rebekka! In Italien wird sehr unterschiedlich gefeiert, je nach Region. Wir essen normal Lamm mit Kartoffeln und Blatt Gemüse. Als Nachspeise gibt es dann Colomba, das ähnlich ist wie Panettone, aber als Taube geformt. Und für die Kinder gibt es mehr oder weniger großen Schokolade Eier, die eine Überraschung verbergen und die nur am Oster Sonntag geöffnet werden.
      Was habt ihr für Traditionen?
      LG
      Laura

      Reply

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