Pastiera napoletana

Weigh 230 g of soaked wheat, rinse it in a sieve under cold water and drain it.

Check The grains are plump and whole, with no sour smell.

Tip These quantities are for soaked raw wheat. Dry wheat berries must be soaked first, for 72 hours (see the plan). Jarred cooked wheat is not a like-for-like swap for these amounts.

Put the wheat in the saucepan with the 600 ml of milk, the 2 knobs of lard, 1½ tablespoons of sugar, 1½ sachets of vanillin and the peel of half an orange. Bring it slowly to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring.

Check Small bubbles break at the edge of the pan; the lard has melted.

Rub the 400 g of flour, the 200 g of sugar and the 200 g of lard together with your fingertips until they look like coarse crumbs. Add the grated lemon zest and the 4 yolks and gather it all quickly into a ball, without kneading more than needed.

Check A smooth, firm dough with no dry flour left in the bowl; it holds together when pressed.

Tip Keep the whites in a covered bowl in the fridge: 3 of them go into the filling.

Tip The dough is short and rather dry. If it will not hold together at all, work in a teaspoon or two of cold water, no more.

Tip Overworking warms the lard and makes the pastry tough: stop as soon as it comes together.

Cut the 100 g of candied fruit into small pieces, about 5 mm.

Check Small, even pieces, none stuck together in clumps.

Push the 320 g of ricotta through the sieve into the large bowl and work it with the 230 g of sugar until smooth and creamy.

Check No lumps of ricotta; the cream is soft and glossy.

Tip If the ricotta is watery, drain it in a sieve in the fridge for a few hours first: a wet ricotta makes a loose filling.

Add the 4 yolks one at a time, mixing each in completely before the next.

Check Smooth and evenly yellow, with no streaks.

Mix in one vial of orange-flower water and the cinnamon.

Check The scent of orange flowers is clear when you smell the bowl.

Add the cold wheat and the diced candied fruit and mix well.

Check The wheat is spread evenly through the cream, with no firm lumps of it left.

Tip Break up the cold wheat with the spatula as you mix: it sets firm in the fridge.

Grease the ruoto, base and sides, with a little lard.

Check A thin, even film everywhere, into the corner.

Cut off two thirds of the pastry and roll it out between two sheets of greaseproof paper to about 2 mm thick, into a disc about 38 cm across. Keep the other third in the fridge.

Check Even all over, about 2 mm, and wide enough to cover the base and the sides of the tin.

Tip If it cracks or sticks, it is too cold or too warm: let it soften a few minutes, or chill it for 10 minutes, and go on.

Peel off the top sheet, turn the pastry into the tin, peel off the second sheet and press the pastry gently into the corner and up the sides. Trim it level with the rim and add the trimmings to the pastry kept for the strips.

Check No holes or thin patches; the pastry reaches the rim all round.

Tip Patch any tear with a scrap of pastry pressed well in: the filling is loose and finds every gap.

Whip the 3 egg whites in the clean bowl to stiff peaks.

Check The peaks stand up straight when the whisk is lifted, and the whites do not slide when the bowl is tipped.

Tip Bowl and whisk must be clean and dry, with no trace of yolk or fat, or the whites will not stiffen.

Fold the whites into the filling with the spatula, turning it over from the bottom upwards. When it is all combined, smell it: if the orange-flower scent is faint, add the second vial.

Check No streaks of white left; the filling is light and soft, and smells clearly of orange flowers.

Tip Be generous rather than mean: part of the scent fades in the oven.

Pour the filling into the lined tin and level the top with the spatula.

Check A flat surface, with the filling a little below the rim of the pastry.

On a sheet of greaseproof paper, roll the remaining pastry into a rectangle as long as the tin is wide, 28 cm, about 3 mm thick. With a knife, mark it along its length into strips 2 cm wide.

Check At least six strips, each 2 cm wide and 28 cm long.

Cut along the marks right through the paper, so that each strip of pastry lies on its own strip of paper.

Check Each strip lifts cleanly on its paper without breaking.

Lift one strip, turn it over, pastry side down, and lay it across the centre of the tart, where it is widest. Peel the paper off gently.

Check The strip lies straight across the middle, unbroken.

Tip Peel the paper back low and slowly along the strip, holding the pastry down with a finger.

Lay a second and a third strip the same way, parallel to the first, one on each side of it, 3 cm away.

Check Three parallel strips with even 3 cm gaps.

Lay three more strips the same way across the first three, at a slant, the central one first, so that the lattice leaves lozenges of filling uncovered. Trim the ends level with the rim and press them on to the edge of the pastry case.

Check A lattice of six strips with diamond-shaped gaps, every end sealed to the rim.

Just before the pastiera goes to the table, sift icing sugar over the top, then cut it in its tin into 10 slices.

Check The sugar sits white on the lattice.

Tip If it has been in the fridge, take it out about an hour before serving, and put what is left back in the fridge, covered, no more than 2 hours after you took it out (about an hour after serving).