All over the world, people have repertoires of dishes that they make for Easter. For some sweet Easter inspiration, we turn to Italy and to Giuseppe Dell'Anno. As the 2021 winner of the Great British Bake Off, he brought the precision of his engineering skills to the tent, marrying them to flavors and techniques he had been steeped in since childhood. Now, Giuseppe is sharing some of his favorite desserts for celebrating Easter.
Evan Kleiman: Thank you so much for coming. Buona Pasqua.
Giuseppe Dell'Anno: Buona Pasqua anche voi.
When you were growing up, did you bake or did you come to it later as a hobby?
Very, very late. I was very spoiled when I was growing up, so I wasn't doing much of the cooking and baking because I was being served all those delicious preparations by my mom and dad. My dad was a professional chef. He's been cooking and baking for passengers on transatlantic ships that used to go on cruises and passenger ships between Europe and South America for over 20 years.
I had to learn how to do it when I left home and went to live on my own when I was 18 years old, to go to uni. I started to miss all the bakes and all the cakes that my dad used to make for us every Sunday, and I realized that I had to start doing it myself. What I realized back then, when I started doing that, is that despite the fact that I'd never been actively baking or actively trying to learn over the course of the years, through my childhood, in my teenage years, I had sort of absorbed by osmosis all those skills, mostly from my dad. It was very easy, at that point, to put into practice what I had been only observing up to that point.
I saw that you're teaching a class on Easter desserts at a school in Cheltenham where you live. What did you decide to make for this particular class?
That's correct. I have to say that I always design them around the things that I like. I always list the recipes that I am really, really fond of. I did the same for the class that I'm holding for Easter. And I've got a few biscuits that are obviously not based... most of the desserts in Italy have got either lots of citrus fruits or lots of nuts. Those are probably the two dominant flavors, at least in the central and southern part of the country.
Crucially, I added in this class, two bakes that are originally from my hometown, which is around Rome, south of Rome on the coast in Italy. They scream Easter to me because they are bakes that would only be prepared for Easter, exclusively for Easter day, potentially Easter Monday, but no other day in the year they would be allowed.
One of them is pastiera, and the other one is what we call tortano in my hometown, but in reality, it's like a ciambellone so a donut shape, a ring-shaped, almost a bundt cake. Extremely flavorsome and very, very aromatic. Very fresh. Obviously for Easter, you're after spring flavors, flavors that remind you of the springtime, and of the flowers blossoming. So there is a lot of freshness and citrusy flavors infused in those bakes. They are absolutely stunning. That's what Easter smells like.
I love that. So the ciambellone, the texture would be similar to our kind of pound cake, right?
I would think so. It's not a particularly soft or light cake. The crumb has got a bit of a bite.
To flavor it, does it have Fiori di Sicilia or vanilla or just lemon and orange zest?
There is lemon and orange zest, the more the better. A gargantuan amount of orange zest, if you can. The way it's usually flavored is simply with orange zest and vanilla. But my family recipe includes a little addition of a very, very popular Italian liqueur that is pretty horrible to drink. I've never heard of anybody that would drink it.
Is it Vov?
No, it's Strega, which means "witch" in Italian. It's very herby, like a bright, bright yellow, so it contributes to give a more vibrant yellowness to the crumb. It's extremely flavorsome and extremely aromatic, and it goes very, very well with pretty much every pastry or cake batter you can make, even with crème pât. It's almost like a passport to... almost like rum whenever you bake with chocolate… one of those liqueurs that go very well with fruity flavors.
That ciambellone uses a small amount of Strega liqueur. It's not easy to find outside of Italy, I have to say. I struggled a little here in the UK to get hold of a bottle but it's absolutely worth the extra effort.
Giuseppe Dell'Anno shares flavors and techniques that he has been steeped in since childhood in "Giuseppe's Easy Bakes." Photo courtesy of Quadrille.
Let's talk about pastiera. I love it so much but when people first discover that it's made with whole grains of wheat, they are perplexed. Could you describe the filling and the way the filling comes together?
You're absolutely right, Evan. I think that's exactly the type of reaction I've had myself when I've offered pastiera to my guests. I should say that I'm very biased, so my input on the topic might not be 100% objective because pastiera is absolutely my favorite cake in the whole of the baking Italian repertoire. When I graduated, to celebrate my graduation for my first degree in Italy, I asked for a pastiera for my graduation party, just to give you an idea — and it wasn't even Easter. For an Italian, a request like that is truly a commitment. So I adore the thing, I really love it.
When I make it, I usually make three or four, because it freezes very well. I freeze it in slices, and as long as you take it out of the freezer still wrapped in cling film the night before, the following day it will be almost perfect, as if it had just been baked.
The filling is very Moorish, so it's almost like a cross between a flan and a burnt Basque cheesecake. Don't expect any sponge. First of all, it's a tart, it's not a cake. It's got a shell that is made with the typical Italian shortcrust pastry, what we call pastafrola. It's a standard shortcrust pastry, nothing special about that, but the filling is what makes it really, really special. It's a mixture of ricotta cheese, sugar, and a lot of candied orange peels. That's the recipe that uses a lot of orange blossom water from Sicily. That's what gives it a very flowery, very sweet flavor.
As I said earlier, that's what Easter smells like for me, because my dad used to prepare between 40 and 50 of these (that's four zero and five zero) pastiera every year, because we used to give them to all of our circle of friends and family. Can you imagine the smell in the house when he was baking gallons of this filling? It was fabulous!
I can appreciate that people might be put off a little by the idea that there is grain in it but you don't really taste it because the way you have to prepare the grains, by soaking it and boiling them for a long time, makes them bloom completely so there is no husk left. It's almost like a soft, overcooked pulse, and the whole thing becomes just one, almost a homogeneous cream. Very sugary, very buttery, and orangey. It's absolutely to try.
Well, Giuseppe, I want to thank you so much. You have made me very, very hungry.
I can only apologize.
I can definitely see a ciambellone in my future very soon and a pastiera a little bit later. Thank you so much.
I'm glad. Thank you for having me and Buona Pasqua again.