Abruzzo boasts many important typically Easter recipes, but Easter Pizza is a real must for breakfast and lunch at these parties
There Easter to Teramo it is a very serious matter, especially at the table.
There are many typical dishes that are prepared these days, but probably the most important of all is the Easter Pizza.
A long leavening makes the difference
At first sight looks like a panettone because very often it is prepared right in the panettone paper mold.
In reality it is a question of a leavened dough, but it has no butter among the ingredients.
The recipe is quite simple and the preparation is similar, but you have to be very careful about two things to get a perfect Easter pizza: leavening and cooking times.
The leavening is divided into two phases, or rather three if we consider the lievitino. The last traditionally lasts a whole night and must be done in a closed environment, away from heat sources.
The secret of many Teramo ladies is to leave the pizzas to rise next to some basins of boiling water because humidity helps the dough to grow.
As for cooking, however, a lot depends on the type of oven. Certainly with the wood oven the result is much better.
Since it is practically used to prepare an Easter pizza a whole day, often at least 5-6 are put in the pipeline to amortize work times.
Tradition and variants
The traditional Easter pizza has inside only aniseed, but over time it has been enriched with the addition beforeraisin, then also gods candied and finally of the chocolate.
However, there are no rules and everyone can do it as they wish, more or less greedy.
The version we will call "poor", therefore with few additions, is perfect for the Easter breakfast also known as "sdiuno" and as an appetizer for lunch because it can be served with boiled eggs, cheese and cold cuts.
The "rich" version instead must be strictly accompanied with chocolate eggs.
The recipe for Teramo Easter Pizza
Ingredients
500 g of 00 flour
6 eggs
1 stick of yeast (25 gr)
150 g of sugar
1/2 glass of extra virgin olive oil
anise seeds to taste
mixed candies to taste
raisin to taste
Dark chocolate (optional) to taste
a pinch of salt
Preparation
Dissolve the yeast in half a glass of water and mix it with 100 g of flour and a teaspoon of sugar.
Cover this mixture with a film and leave it to rise for an hour. Here is the lievitino ready.
Separately, beat the egg whites separately with a pinch of salt and the egg yolks with the sugar. Add the two compounds stirring from the bottom upwards.
At this point add the prepared mixture with the yeast, the eggs mixed and whipped, the oil and 400 g of flour and mix well. Add more flour if necessary.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 3 hours.
Then add the anise, candied fruit, raisins and chopped chocolate to the dough and fill with this mixture two panettone paper molds of about 500 g up to half the height. Let it rise for a few more hours (or overnight) and bake at 180 ° for 40 minutes.
Let it cool in the oven off and slightly open.
