Made using classic Neapolitan ingredients (lard, brewer's yeast, salami, eggs and Pecorino), but with a star chef's touch of class, Roberto Di Pinto's casatiello is a must-have appetizer to celebrate Easter in style.

INGREDIENTS for a mold 24 cm in diameter

For the dough

375 g water
650 g 00 flour
10 g fresh brewer's yeast
15 g fine salt
Black pepper to taste
25 g of lard
25 g extra virgin olive oil

For the filling

150 g Neapolitan salami
150 g pecorino cheese

To decorate

4 eggs

For the dough

Pour fresh brewer's yeast into room temperature water, stir to dissolve, and pour mixture into a planetary mixer. Add oil and lard. Start working the ingredients on low speed and little by little add half the amount of flour, helping with a spoon. When the flour is completely absorbed and you have obtained a kind of batter, add the salt. Pour in all the remaining flour at once and knead at medium speed for about 10 minutes. The dough should have a soft consistency, but not excessively so. Transfer the dough to the work surface, give it a spherical shape and let it rest on the work surface without covering it.

For the filling

In the meantime, prepare the filling: cut the salami into slices not too thin lengthwise, reduce it into strips and finally into cubes. Remove the rind from the Pecorino and make cubes that are still quite as large as those of the salami. Take the dough again, keeping about 80 g of it aside. Flatten the dough slightly, pour in the Pecorino and salami cubes and knead with your hands until all the ingredients are perfectly incorporated. Sprinkle with plenty of pepper and knead so that it is absorbed. Handle the dough to stretch it into a filoncino, and when it is long enough, take a doughnut mold 24 cm in diameter and butter it; place the filoncino made inside the mold by joining and sealing the two ends.

For the eggs

Place the raw eggs vertically in 4 well-spaced places on the casatiello making a slight pressure; then take the dough set aside and knead 8 pieces to form filoncini, which you can place crosswise on the eggs to cage them.

For leavening and baking

Cover the casatiello with a clean tea towel and let it rise at room temperature away from drafts for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours. When it has nearly doubled in volume, bake in a static oven preheated to 170° for 75 minutes, on the lowest shelf of the oven. Let it cool, then gently unmold and place on a serving plate.