I developed my own Cajun pastalaya recipe after experimenting with three or four distinct Southern Louisiana recipes. I’ve never timed myself, so the prep and cooking times could be incorrect. Enjoy, everyone! Serve with stale bread.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Additional Time: | 5 hrs |
| Total Time: | 6 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 9-inch deep dish pie |
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter, chilled
- ⅓ cup superfine sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons ice water, or as needed
- 1 cup uncooked white rice
- 2 cups water
- ¼ cup raisins
- 1 ⅓ cups milk
- 1 ½ tablespoons grated orange zest
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 3 egg yolks
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons orange flower water
- 4 egg whites
Instructions
- In a saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Place raisins in a small saucepan and cover with boiling water. Cook over low heat or 10 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
- To Make Dough: In a medium bowl or in a food processor, combine flour and 1/3 cup superfine sugar. Cut in butter or pulse in processor until mixture looks like cornmeal. Mix in 1 egg yolk. Stir in ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture holds together when you squeeze it. Wrap with plastic wrap and let rest in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- In a medium saucepan, combine cooked rice, milk, orange zest and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until mixture is creamy and thick. Remove from heat. Whisk 3 egg yolks with 1/3 cup sugar in a large bowl. Gradually add hot rice mixture, about a cup at a time, whisking constantly. Stir in ricotta cheese, cooked raisins and cinnamon. Add vanilla and orange flower water. Let mixture cool to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Roll out 3/4 of the pastry dough into an 11-inch circle and line the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Roll out remaining dough into a 10-inch circle and cut into lattice strips.
- In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter to lighten it, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain.
- Pour filling into dough-lined pan. Criss-cross the lattice strips over the filling. Seal the lattice strips to the bottom pastry edge.
- Bake in preheated oven for an hour, or until pastry is golden brown. Cool at room temperature for about 4 hours, then keep refrigerated.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 444 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 67 g |
| Cholesterol | 134 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 10 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 134 mg |
| Sugars | 21 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Like another reviewer mentioned, the taste profile is somewhat subdued/subtle. I thought at first I didn’t care for this pie. The taste is somewhat unusual and unexpected. The orange gives it a light, fresh note. With the rice, it is a soft texture, not too crunchy or mushy. Definitely tastes better cold as leftovers. Would make and eat again!
Full disclosure: I am not Italian, but I loved this dessert. I made it and everyone loved it. I had a little difficulty finding the orange flower water, and finally just ordered it online. But I think it is those little touches that take recipes like this into a whole new realm. Authentic, made from scratch, (of course), and divinely delicious, it is one I will make again and again. Thank you for sharing this old world recipe.
I really wanted to love this pie but there was too much rice and it was not very creamy at all.
Lucky enough to have a taste when a co-worker made it. It’s tender, creamy, delicate; love the flavor of the aromatic orange flower water and orange zest.
I thought this was wonderful. It’s very floral, which some family members found off-putting. If you’re unsure about the orange blossom water, you might try reducing the amount by half; it’s pretty powerful stuff. I might bump up the zest, too. Next time, I would blind-bake the crust and maybe omit the lattice crust—or bake the pie partway, until the surface firms up, and try to add the lattice mid-bake? When I set the dough strips on the filling, they started to sink down into it, and the filling’s so wet, they didn’t bake all the way through. The filling started browning before the crust was set, so I covered the top with foil for the last part of baking. Worth experimenting with this one, though.
This is a good, nice, but not a rich pie. Delicious on its own, but the taste is not very festive. I agree with other reviewers that the dough is very difficult to work with. 2 cups flour is too much, I added 1 3/4 cups and it was plenty. The dough is crumbly and it is imposible to cut it. I put it into baking springform and pressed with my fingers. It is the only one way that I could do with it. I didn’t have enough dough to make the lattice strips. So I ended up making crumble topping. The recipe makes too much filling, so be sure to make large edges. The filling is a little runny but it sets quickly in the oven. I think the pie has too much rice, 3/4 cup would be enough.
Instead of raisins, I used pineapple slices to garnish it.With cherries in the middle,like what you would put on a ham at Easter.
The taste was great, however, there was too much rice and it was way too dense and a bit dry. I would liked to be a little bit more of the creamy base so next time I will reduce the amount of rice. I will make this again.
This was a lovely subtle pie, really nice. I had a few issues with the pastry though, it seemed to be sticky and crumbly at the same time. I don’t know whether that’s the recipe or the chef, though, because I don’t tend to use a method like that for pastry, so I could just be inexperienced. It was, as someone else said, quite a complicated pie to put together, and it took me quite a while, but I think it was worth it, although unless anyone gives me any tips I’ll just use my usual pastry for the crust.
This is a Excellent recipe, It came out perfect and very outstanding Delicacy. This deserves 5 STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is an excellent recipe. Very similar to the pies my Italian grandmother made.