I was really happy with the results of this recipe, but a little frustrated with the actual cooking. The noodles stuck together in big clumps and were quite difficult to get apart. And then the clumps cooked much slower than any noodles that did manage to stay separate. I don't know if the problem was my noodles, the way I broke them up, or the fact that my sauce was already boiling by the time I added them, but it was quite annoying! I think next time I'd try using a bag of the small "lasagna" noodles instead to see if that helped at all. Still... I can't argue with the results. This was excellent!

Skillet Lasagna

Slightly adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

• 250g sausage meat¹
• 2-3 tsp. garlic paste
• 650-700mL tomato pasta sauce²
• 1-2 c. water
• 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 9 lasagna noodles, broken into 5cm pieces
• 1 c. ricotta cheese³
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan
• 1 large egg (optional)⁴
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2-3/4 c. grated mozzarella (or other melty cheese)

Directions

1. Cook the sausage over medium heat, breaking it up as it cooks.
2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
3. Add the pasta sauce, 1 c. of water, and Italian seasoning and stir to combine.
4. Add the noodles, being careful to make sure they don't clump.
5. Cover pan and bring to a boil.
6. Stir, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until noodles are almost tender (~12 minutes), adding more water as needed to keep sauce moist.
7. Meanwhile, combine ricotta, Parmesan, egg, and a little salt and pepper and mix well.
8. Stir the pasta again, adding a little more water if necessary.
9. Dollop the ricotta mixture on top, cover, and simmer until heated through (~5 minutes).
10. Sprinkle with mozzarella and place under broiler until cheese is melty and lightly browned (2-3 minutes).

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¹ I only used 125g of sausage for my rendition because I was tossing in ~400g of homemade bolognese along with the 420mL of canned pasta sauce. ^Back
2 My can of pasta sauce was only 420mL so I added ~400g of frozen bolognese that we had in the fridge. I know that adds up to more that adds up to more than 700mL (if you assume that the sauce is mostly water and thus you can use weight to estimate volume), but since the bolognese had a bunch of meat in it, I figured it was less... saucy than plain pasta sauce, so I probably worked out about right for the sauce volume. And the extra meat in the sauce helped to make up for the paucity of sausage since I didn't have the full 250g on hand for this. ^Back
3 I think you could probably get away with using less ricotta than this, but I didn't want to have a partial tub left over so I just followed the recipe an used it all. ^Back
4 The original recipe didn't call for an egg, but the ricotta mixture was too thick to dollop easily and I usually add an egg to my "traditional" lasagna, so I tossed one in. ^Back

This was originally meant to be a rainbow chard gratin with ricotta and gruyère. TF isn't particularly fond of chard (silverbeet) though and I couldn't get any gruyère, so I ended up swapping in a mix of spinach and kale and some low-fat Swiss cheese instead. I also halved all the quantities so that I could make a smaller gratin as three pounds of kale seemed like... a lot. And this smaller quantity also perfectly used up the half tub of ricotta that I had left over. And I'm very happy with how this worked out! It's not amazing, but it makes for a perfectly acceptable vegetable side dish.

Kale Gratin with Ricotta and Swiss

Adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 680g kale¹
• 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 c. ricotta
• 60g grated Swiss cheese
• 1/2 Tbsp. Roman mustard
• 1/2 c. breadcrumbs²

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) and grease a casserole dish.
2. Chope the kale, keeping the stems and leaves separate.
3. Heat the oil over medium heat and add the kale stems, onion, and garlic and cook until softened (~6 minutes).
4. Add the kale leaves, thyme, salt, and pepper and cook until wilted (~4 minutes).
5. Meanwhile, combine the ricotta, Swiss, and mustard and mix well.
6. Once the greens are cooked, try to press out and discard as much liquid as possible.
7. Add the cheese mixture to the greens and stir to combine.
8. Press the mixture into the prepared casserole dish and top with breadcrumbs.
9. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 20 minutes.

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¹ Ideally this would be made entirely with fresh kale. I didn't have enough, so I made up the difference with some frozen spinach. ^Back
2 The recipe called for fresh breadcrumbs, but I was feeling lazy and just used panko instead. I'm really happy with the results this gave. ^Back

This dessert is given as the recipe for December 30th in my Dish of the Day cookbook. the idea is that it's meant to be something light and refreshing to offset all the rich, heavy foods that tend to get eaten over the holidays. I lightened it up slightly more by swapping out the whole milk ricotta for low-fat ricotta. I also halved the pistachios. The original recipe called for equal parts ricotta and nuts! I think next time I might double the ricotta and orange as well. I like the idea of having those two elements making up the bulk of the dish with the pistachios, honey, and pomegranate acting as highlights.

This was a pleasant dessert. It's definitely not going to become a go-to favourite or anything, but it was easy and it did taste nice, just not amazing. And it also let me use up most of the leftover pomegranate I had sitting in the fridge plus some of the blood oranges from the freezer. (Although I accidentally grabbed one blood orange and one navel orange, so only half of my little ricotta pots had actual blood orange in. Whoops! Oh well...) So, overall, glad I tried it and I might make it again sometime, but it probably won't be a regular occurance.

Ricotta with Blood Orange, Pistachios, and Honey

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 c. ricotta
• 4 blood oranges
• 1/4 c. pistachios, chopped
• 1/4 c. pomegranate arils
• 1/4 c. honey

Directions

1. Place 1/4 c. of ricotta in each dish/jar/cup.
2. Use a knife to remove the peel and pith from the oranges. Segment or slice as desired.
3. Place 1/4 of the orange pieces (1 orange worth) on top of each portion of ricotta.
4. Top each with 1 Tbsp. of pistachios, 1 Tbsp. of pomegranate, and 1 Tbsp. of honey.

Are you getting tired of egg recipes yet? I probably should be, but luckily there's a lot of variety to what you can do with eggs so I'm not bored yet. That said, I will admit that this was not one of my favourite egg recipes. It was alright and it used up most of the remaining home-made ricotta that had been sitting in the fridge, so it was helpful in that respect. But it's probably not one that I'll revisit. To be fair though, my cheese was somewhat drier and firmer than regular store-bought ricotta, so that probably resulted in eggs with a different final texture than the recipe intended. Still... there are enough really excellent egg recipes out there -- Heck! There are enough really excellent egg recipes right in the same book -- that I probably won't bother trying to make this one again any time soon. This definitely falls into the category of "included for completeness". That's fine though. Not every recipe can be a favourite.

Scrambled Eggs with Ricotta and Tomatoes

Slightly adapted from The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

• 6 large eggs
• 1 c. whole milk ricotta
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 c. chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
• 4 slices buttered toast

Directions

1. Beat the eggs with the ricotta until blended and set aside.
2. Melt the butter over medium-low heat.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook until the juices evaporate.
4. Add the egg mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the eggs are just soft set (~3 minutes).
5. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with basil, and serve with buttered toast.

---

Variants

Scrambled Eggs wiht Ricotta

Ingredients

• 6 large eggs
• 1 c. whole milk ricotta
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
• 4 slices buttered toast
• 1-2 tomatoes, thinly sliced (optional)

Directions

1. Beat the eggs with the ricotta until blended and set aside.
2. Melt the butter over medium-low heat.
3. Add the egg mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the eggs are just soft set (~3 minutes).
4. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with basil, and serve with buttered toast and sliced tomatoes (if using).

Salatat Fawakeh (Fruit Salad)

I had been intending on making a peach coffee cake for dessert last night. Only to check the recipe and find out that it calls for peach preserves in addition to actual peaches. I didn't really feel that any of the preserves that we had would make a good stand-in for the peach ones, so I set that plan aside for now and started flipping through cookbooks for other dessert ideas.

I'd initially thought to make a carrot cake. But, after examining the amount of sugar and oil called for in the recipe, I couldn't bring myself to make it. Plus, I didn't have the buttermilk for making the soaking syrup anyway. (Yes, this cake calls for a huge amount of sugar in the batter and then soaking it in a buttermilk-sugar syrup before icing it with cream cheese frosting.) So that was out...

I considered a few different cookies. There were some interesting, not-too-sweet-looking, yeasted ones in the Italian cookbook my mom got me for my birthday this year. And the anise and nigella cookies from the Syrian cookbook were also tempting. In the end though, I decided to go for this fruit salad. We didn't quite have all the ingredients it called for, but we came close enough that I felt like I could make a reasonable approximation of it.

The original recipe (which is what I've given here) called for apples, bananas, mangoes, kiwi, and strawberries. I had the apples, bananas, and strawberries, but was bereft of kiwi and only had mangoes in frozen form as part of a "tropical mix" with pineapple, coconut, and dragonfruit. I realize that this wasn't exactly the blend that the recipe was calling for, but I decided to give it a go with the "tropical mix" standing in for the kiwi and mango.

The dish is meant to be topped with "milk curd" -- a soft, fresh, Syrian cheese. The author notes that ricotta makes a reasonable substitute if you don't feel like making your own cheese for this. I decided to try it with fat-free cottage cheese since I that is a "zero Point" food for me. The cottage cheese was fine with it, but I think the saltiness of it clashes a little bit with the fruit. Next time I think I'll follow the Kidlet's example and have it with plain Greek yogurt instead.

The salad is also meant to be topped with raisins, whole almonds, and honey. Conveniently, we still have a partial jar of whole mixed nuts packed in liquid honey, so I just used those -- along with a few raisins -- to put the finishing touches on the salad. I went with ~4 almonds, 1 tsp. of raisins, and a teaspoon or so of honey (estimating how much came with the nuts) for each portion. I think I probably could've gotten away with a little less for the raisins and honey, but it's certainly very tasty that way! (Just a little more calorically dense.)

Salatat Fawakeh

From Our Syria by Dina Mousawi and Itab Azzam

Ingredients

• 1 mango, peeled and cubed
• 1 apple, chopped
• 1 kiwi, peeled and sliced
• 1 banana, sliced
• 8 strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 200g ricotta, cottage cheese, or plain Greek yogurt
• 16-20 whole almonds
• 4 tsp. raisins
• 4 tsp. honey

Directions

1. Toss the mango, apple, kiwi, banana, and strawberries together.
2. Divide into four equal portions and top each one with ~50g of cheese, 4-5 almonds, and 1 tsp. of raisins.
3. Drizzle each with 1 tsp. of honey and serve.

I ran across this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. I bookmarked it because I thought it sounded tasty, but I also question their concept of "breakfast". This is basically a cheesecake. It uses ricotta rather than cream cheese and a higher proprotion of flour than I'm used to seeing in cheesecakes, but it's still pretty much just a crust-less cheesecake with fruit in. To me, it is unequivocally dessert, not breakfast. I mean, I'm not going to tell you when or how to eat your cake -- have it whenever you please -- but I am planning to enjoy mine as a pleasant after-dinner treat.

Berry Breakfast Cake

Slightly adapted from King Arthur Baking

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 c. ricotta
• 1 c. sour cream
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries¹

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 20cm (8") round cake pan.
2. Beat eggs with sugar until light and thickened (~3 minutes).
3. Beat in ricotta, sour cream, butter, and vanilla.
4. Mix in flour, salt, and baking powder.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle berries on top.
6. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 40-65 mintues (less for fresh berries, more for frozen).
7. Serve with icing sugar and or cinnamon sprinkled on top.

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¹ We were low on blueberries, so I ended up using 1/2 c. each of blueberries and raspberries. ^Back

Symbol made the noodles for this from scratch, and they really elevated the dish; that said, if you don't feel like making fresh pasta, I think it would turn out fine with store-bought too. The Kidlet, sadly, gave this one the thumbs down, apparently on the grounds that she only likes mushrooms one day of the year.

We were both dubious about the honey, but it really does add a lot; don't skimp on it.

Pasta with Mushrooms and Ricotta

My Saratoga Kitchen Table

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 lbs assorted mushrooms, quartered
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
  
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
• salt and black pepper
• 1 lb pappardelle, fettuccini, or similar flat, noodly pasta
• 1 C ricotta
• ½ C toasted walnut pieces
• honey and parmesan, for serving
  

Directions

1. Melt butter in a dutch oven over medium-high heat.
2. Add mushrooms, thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper; cook, covering briefly at the start, until mushrooms have released their liquid and cooked down, ~15 minutes.
3. Cook pasta al dente. Drain, reserving ½ C cooking water.
   
4. Combine pasta, water, ricotta, walnuts, and additional salt and pepper to taste with the mushrooms and toss to combine.
5. Drizzle generously with honey before serving, and top with freshly grated parmesan.
   

Maccheroni alla Salsiccia e Ricotta (Macaroni with Sausage, Tomatoes & Ricotta)

Another sausage-based pasta dish, always welcome. The recipe as written calls for less sauce for the same amount of pasta, but we ramped up the sausage and tomatoes to even out the proportions a bit and I think that worked well, in addition to letting us use up an integer number of sausage and tomato packages. The recipe recorded here is the modified version.

The recipe recommends maccheroni, which we used, but also notes that it works well with penne, fusilli, rigatoni -- basically any relatively short, high surface area pasta.

Maccheroni alla Salsiccia e Ricotta

The Classic Pasta Cookbook, p.117

Ingredients

• 1 lb dry pasta
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 lb mild Italian sausage, peeled and crumbled
• 1 28oz tin whole peeled tomatoes, with juice, coarsely chopped
• salt and pepper
• ½ C ricotta
• 2 tbsp freshly torn basil leaves
• ¼ C freshly grated parmesan

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion and cook until it softens and turns golden.
3. Add the sausage and cook until it has browned lightly.
4. Season lightly with salt and pepper, keeping in mind that the sausage already has seasonings.
5. Add the tomatoes and continue cooking until the tomatoes have reduced and separated; reduce heat to warm.
   
6. Meanwhile, cook the pasta al dente.
7. When the pasta is almost done, return the sauce to medium heat and stir in the ricotta and basil.
8. Toss with the pasta and parmesan and serve.

Uova "Il Poggio" (Eggs "Il Poggio")

This is by far the most unusual, complicated deviled egg recipe I've ever encountered. I'm not sure whether or not I like it more than regular deviled eggs, but it is quite tasty and I appreciate the fact that it's something a bit different than the usual approach. I also like that you get a bit of veg built into the dish. Means I don't feel so bad serving it as a major component of our dinner. We had it with polenta con funghi e peproni tonight and I'll probably make some sort of pasta dish to round out the leftovers for dinner tomorrow night.

Uova "Il Poggio"

Slightly adapted from Cooking from an Italian Garden by Paola Scaravelli and Jon Cohen

Ingredients

• 6 large hard-cooked eggs
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 c. ricotta
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 tsp. dry mustard
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 450g spinach (fresh or frozen)

Béchamel Sauce

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 1 1/4 c. table (18%) cream
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Once hard-cooked eggs are cool enough to handle, peel them and halve them lengthwise. (If you plunge them into cold water immediate upon being removed from the hot/boiling water, they should not develop the greenish colour on the outside of the yolk and will also cool faster.)
2. Remove the yolks from the hard-cooked eggs. Set the whites aside.
3. In a bowl, combine the hard-cooked egg yolks, softened butter, ricotta, Parmesan, salt, pepper, mustard, and raw yolks.
4. Mix well and set aside.
5. Grease a 23cm (9") square pan and preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).
6. Cook the spinach (without any water) and squeeze it to remove excess moisture. Chop finely and set aside.
7. Now make the béchamel sauce.
8. Once the béchamel sauce is complete, add 1/4 c. of the sauce to the egg yolk mixutre.
9. Combine the remaining sauce with the spinach.
10. Pour the spinach sauce into the prepared pan and nestle the hard-cooked egg whites into it.
11. Now beat the raw egg whites to stiff peaks.
12. Mix ~1/3 of the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture to loosen it.
13. Now pour the egg yolk mixture into the bowl with the remaining whites and carefully fold them in.
14. Spoon the yolk mixture into the hard-cooked whites. You will probably have more yolk mixture than will fit into the whites. If so, just pour the extra over top.
15. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 15-25 minutes.
16. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Qatayef (Syrian Stuffed Pancakes)

I was going to make cookies today, but then I saw this stuffed pancake recipe and adjusted my plans!

Qatayef

Slightly adapted from Our Syria by Itab Azzam and Dina Mousawi

Ingredients

• 200g all-purpose flour¹
• 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 c. warm water
• 1 c. chopped walnuts
• 3-4 Tbsp. sugar syrup², divided
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 c. ricotta
• 1 Tbsp. pistachios, chopped
• oil for frying

Directions

1. Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking powder and mix well.
2. Whisk in the warm water. Make sure it's warm enough to activate the yeast but not so hot that it kills it.
3. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
4. After 30 minutes, whisk the batter again to deflate it.
5. Heat a pan or griddle over medium heat.
6. Add a little butter to the pan if it needs to be greased.
7. Pour ~1/4 c. of batter into the pan.
8. The batter will bubble as it cooks. Once it stops bubbling and looks dry on top, it's done. DO NOT FLIP IT OVER! Simply remove it from the pan and allow it to cool.
9. Repeat cooking steps with remaining batter. DO NOT STACK THE PANCAKES! They must be placed in a single layer or they will stick together.
10. While the pancakes are cooling, combine the walnuts, 1 Tbsp. of the syrup, cinnamon, and ricotta.
11. Place a spoonful of filling on each pancake and fold them over to form well-stuffed semi-cricles. Press the edges firmly to seal. If you're having trouble getting a good seal, use some of the remaining syrup to glue them shut.
12. Pour oil into a wok or pot to a depth of at least 3cm and heat it over medium-high heat.
13. Deep-fry the stuffed pancakes (in batches) until they're golden brown and slightly crisp on all sides.
14. Allow to drain on a wire rack (or paper towels) for a few minutes.
15. Transfer to a plate and drizzle with the remaining syrup.
16. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios and serve!

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¹ I was running low on all-purpose flour, so I used ~100g of whole wheat flour + 100g of all-purpose. I was very happy with how this worked out. ^Back
2 Make the syrup by combining equal parts sugar and water. Add a touch of lemon juice as well if you like. Boil until slightly thickened. (It should be about the consistency of maple syrup.) Set aside to cool. ^Back

One of my favourite local restaurants sometimes has a burrata-stuffed Acorn squash on the menu and it is TO DIE FOR! Even the skin is delicious. I don't think my version came out quite as addictively tasty as theirs, but it was still darn good. I think, if I wanted to really perfect it, I'd want to find a way to char the skin and maybe infuse it with saltiness. This was definitely a good starting point though.

Cheese-Stuffed Roasted Acorn Squash

Adapted from Half-Baked Harvest

Ingredients

• 1 acorn squash
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. red chile flakes
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. ricotta
• 50-100g fresh mozzarella, sliced thin
• 3-4 tsp. pomegranate molasses
• 1 tsp. olive oil

Directions

1. Cut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
2. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
3. Combine butter, honey, brown sugar, chile flakes, salt, and pepper and mix well.
4. Coat squash halves with the butter mixture inside and out.
5. Place cut-side-up on a baking sheet (preferably one that has been lined with a silicone baking mat) and bake at 220°C (425°F) for 40 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and fill squash halves with ricotta.
7. Top with mozzarella and return to oven for 10 more more minutes at 220°C (425°F).
8. Remove from oven, transfer to serving plate and drizzle with pomegranate molasses and olive oil.
9. Serve as is or with some crusty bread.

I've had my eye on this drop meatball recipe for a while now. Rather than cooking the meatballs in advance and then adding them to the sauce, you add them to the sauce raw and cook both the sauce and meatballs together. This came together very easily and, although quite simple, was also very tasty. I think a few handfulls of chopped kale or spinach would work well in the sauce and make for a slightly more balanced meal. It's still tasty as is, just a bit lacking in vegetables.

Drop Meatballs

Adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2018

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 3/4 c. fresh breadcrumbs¹
• 7 Tbsp. milk
• 450g Beyond Meat
• 14g (~1/2 c.) grated Parmesan
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt²
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Sauce

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 5-6 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1/4 tsp. red chile flakes
• 1 (828mL) can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• pepper, to taste
• 1 c. chopped kale (optional)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 c. ricotta (optional)

Assembly

• 450g whole wheat spaghetti
• extra Parmesan, for serving

Directions

Meatballs

1. Mix breadcrumbs and milk and set aside for 5 minutes.
2. Mix in Beyond Meat, Parmesan, garlic powder, oregano, salt, and pepper.
3. Working with ~2 Tbsp. of mixture at a time, shape into balls. You should get 20-24 meatballs.

Sauce

1. Heat oil over medium-low heat.
2. Add garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10-12 minutes.
3. Add chile flakes and sizzle for 30-60 seconds.
4. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, and kale (if using).

Assembly

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
2. Drop meatballs into sauce. Be careful; do not stir or the meatballs may break apart.
3. Cover and transfer to oven. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 30 minutes.
4. Remove lid and bake for another 10 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes.
6. While sauce is sitting, cook and drain the spachetti.
7. Carefully stir the basil and ricotta (if using) into the sauce.
8. Toss the spagheti with the sauce and meatballs.
9. Serve topped with extra cheese.

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¹ The original recipe called for 11 crushed saltines and 1/2 c. of milk to make the panade. I didn't have saltines, but I did have lots of stale bread, so I used that instead. Since the bread was more moist than the crackers would've been, I increased the amount of bread and decreased the amount of milk. ^Back
2 I usually reduce the amount of salt called for in American recipes by at least half. Sometimes I omit it entirely. Had I been using saltines for the panade as the recipe directed, I would've omitted the additional salt called for. Given that the use of breadcrumbs was already reducing the salt content significantly, I decided to use the full amount of salt called for in the meatballs. (Although I still halved the salt in the sauce.) I think this worked out well, although it still probably would've been okay with less salt. ^Back

I've had a buttercup squash lying around for a couple months now. The Kidlet and I were going to turn it into soup, but with the hot temperatures we're expecting this week, I decided that I really didn't want soup. It probably would've been easier to make some other sort of squash dish, but I really wanted ravioli. I took a look at Hazan's pasta book for recipes, but the only thing he had for squash-stuffed pasta used an obscure variety of Italian squash for which he recommended substituting sweet potato. After poking around online a bit, I found a recipe for squash and ricotta stuffed shells and figured I'd adapt that to my purposes.

Uncooked ravioli ready to go in the pot.

The original recipe called for two cups of butternut squash. I just used the whole buttercup, it was probably a bit more than two cups, but close enough that I wasn't too worried about it. I made some faux ricotta from powdered milk. I used garlic paste in place of the crushed garlic. And I swapped out the spinach for kale. Then, instead of stuffing shells and baking them, I just stuffed my ravioli and boiled it as normal, tossing it with the simple sage-butter sauce after draining.

Squash Ravioli with Sage-Butter Sauce

Adapted from Key Ingredient

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 c. pasta flour
• 3 large eggs
• 3-4 large egg yolks
• 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil

Filling

• 1 buttercup squash
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 c. ricotta
• 1/3 c. grated Parmesan
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1/4 c. chopped kale
• zest of 1 lemon

Sauce

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 10-12 sage leaves
• juice of 1 lemon
• grated Parmesan, to serve

Directions

Dough

1. Combine pasta flour, eggs, 3 egg yolks, and 1 Tbsp. olive oil and mix well. If dough seems to stiff, knead in another egg yolk and/or another Tbsp. of oil.
2. Knead the dough for a few minutes, then cover and set aside to rest while you prepare the filling.

Filling

1. Halve and seed the squash.
2. Brush it with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
3. Roast at 190°C (375°F) for ~1 hour.
4. Once the squash has cooled enough to handle, scoop the flesh from the skin.
5. Mash the squash and combine it with the ricotta, Parmesan, egg, garlic, kale, and lemon zest.

Assembly

1. Knead the dough until smooth and supple.
2. Divide into two or three portions.
3. Working with one portion at a time, roll it out very thin. Try to apply pressure outward and not down. The dough should be stretched rather than compressed.
4. Cut circles out of the dough, 5-7cm is generally a good size. Keep them covered so they don't dry out.
5. Place a small amount of filling on each circle.
6. Wet the edge with a bit of egg white.
7. Fold in half and press to seal.
8. Place on a flour-dusted plate while you assemble the rest of the ravioli. If you need to pile more ravioli on top, dust the underlying ones lightly with flour to stop them from sticking together.
9. Once all the ravioli have been assembled, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the pasta. Cook for 1-3 minutes, then drain.
10. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce.

Sauce

1. Melt the butter over medium heat.
2. Add the sage leaves and cook, swirling occasionally, until butter has browned.
3. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Serving

1. Toss cooked ravioli with sauce.
2. Served topped with grated Parmesan.

I've been continuing to experiment with sourdough recipes to keep my starter going between bread baking endeavors. I had ricotta an limes that needed to be used up, so this seemed like a natural choice.

The cookies aren't overly sweet, so the intensely sweet lime glaze complements them well. That said, I probably wouldn't bother making these again. They're okay, but they're not great. I'd rather put the ingredients into something I like better. Still, it was an interesting experiment and gave me another non-bread thing to do with my starter.

Ricotta-Lime Sourdough Cookies

Slightly adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

Dough

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 large egg
• 120g (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1 c. ricotta
• zest of 1 lime
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground

Glaze

• 1 1/4 c. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• juice of 1 lime

Directions

Dough

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (3-4 minutes).
2. Beat in the egg.
3. Mix in the sourdough starter, ricotta, lime zest, and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Mix dry ingredients into wet until combined.
6. Cover and chill for ~1 hour.
7. Portion scoops of ~1 Tbsp. each onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15-17 minutes.
9. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Glaze

1. Sift sugar into a bowl.
2. Stir in lime juice to made a smooth glaze.
3. Spoon glaze over the cookies once they've cooled completely.

Maccheroni alla Salsiccia e Ricotta (Pasta with Sausage and Ricotta)

I'm always happy to return to Hazan's Classic Pasta Cookbook and this recipe is no exception. We find that his recipes are often heavy on the pasta and light on the sauce, while we prefer the opposite (especially when—as is almost always the case—cooking with store-bought dry pasta rather than fresh, home-made noodles), so we increased the pasta amount slightly but doubled the sauce. The result was a hit with everyone.

As written it calls for maccheroni. We made it with a mix of cavatappi and whole-wheat fusilli; I suspect it would work well with any reasonably compact, high surface area pasta.

We also added some garlic, because who doesn't like garlic? The original recipe doesn't call for any, but...

Maccheroni alla Salsiccia e Ricotta

The Classic Pasta Cookbook p.117

Ingredients

• 1¼ lb dry pasta
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 lb mild Italian pork sausage, crumbled
• 3 C tinned whole peeled tomatoes, in their juice, coarsely chopped
• 1 C whole-milk ricotta
• 4 tbsp freshly torn basil
• ½ C freshly grated parmesan

Directions

1. In the background, cook the pasta al dente.
2. Melt the butter in a dutch oven over medium-high heat.
3. Add onion and cook until it softens and turns golden.
4. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 30-60 seconds.
5. Add the sausage and cook, stirring occasionally, until it has browned lightly.
6. Stir in the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and continue cooking until the tomatoes have reduced and the butter and sausage fat have begun to separate from the sauce.
7. Reduce heat to medium and stir in the ricotta and basil.
8. Remove from the heat and add the pasta and parmesan. Mix together and serve.

We're planning a trip to Ottawa in the new year. I've been looking at restaurant recommendations and came across a fun breakfast place that has lemon-blueberry ricotta pancakes. That sounded like an incredibly tasty breakfast to me. And I already had a bunch of ricotta in the fridge that needed to be used up. So it was just a matter of a quick Google search to find some plausible-looking ricotta pancake recipes. I found one on the Spruce. I ended up having to tweak it a bit since the batter came out way too runny, but it made nice pancakes once I added a bit more flour.

Lemon-Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

Slightly adapted from The Spruce

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. ricotta
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• zest of 1 lemon
• 200g flour
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• ~1 c. blueberries

Lemon Sauce (optional)

• juice of 1 lemon
• ~1 c. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 1 Tbsp. milk

Directions

1. Combine milk, egg, ricotta, melted butter, vanilla, and lemon zest.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry. Mix until combined, but still lumpy.
4. Preheat a skillet/pan.
5. Lightly grease pan.
6. Scoop large spoonfuls of batter into pan (~1/4 c.). Don't overcrowd the pan or it'll be difficult to flip your pancakes!
7. Sprinkle a few blueberries onto each pancake.
8. Cook until edges of pancakes start to look dry.
9. Flip and cook other side.
10. Serve with lemon sauce (optional) and/or maple syrup.

Lemon Sauce

1. Whisk sugar into juice.
2. Whisk in milk.
3. Serve over pancakes.

These casunziei (basically half-moon shaped ravioli) were really tasty. The poppy seed sauce didn't really seem to complement them that well though. I think next time I might experiment with some sort of cream sauce. Maybe something with a crème fraîche base. I'm not entirely sure, but I think something with a mild tartness to it would go well.

Beet Casunziei

Slightly adapted from Great Italian Chefs

Ingredients

Pasta

• 300g pasta flour
• 3 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 egg yolk

Filling

• 500g beets
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg white
• 100g ricotta
• salt and pepper, to taste
• breadcrumbs

Directions

Preparation

1. Combine flour, eggs, oil, and yolk to make a smooth dough.
2. Wrap up tightly and chill for at least 30 minutes.
3. Steam and peel the beets. (InstantPot works well for this: high pressure 20 minutes, 10 minute natural release.)
4. Purée the beets and place them in a fine mesh strainer to drain for 10 minutes or so.
5. Stir together beets egg, egg white, ricotta, and salt and pepper.
6. Add enough breadcrumbs to create a smooth but not runny filling (~1/4 c. give-or-take).

Assembly

1. Take ~1/3 of the dough and roll it out very thin.
2. Cut out as many 7cm circles as possible.
3. Place a scant tsp. of filling on each circle.
4. Fold over to create a half moon shape and press edges to seal.
5. Crimp with fork.
6. Repeat with remaining 2/3 of dough.
7. Combine dough scraps and roll out again to make more casunziei.

Storage and Cooking

1. If not cooking immediately, place casunziei in a single layer on a parchment-lined plate or baking sheet and freeze. (You will need to work in batches.)
2. Once frozen, they can be transferred to a Ziploc bag and kept in the freezer for a few months.
3. To cook, bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil, add pasta, and cook until it floats (3-5 minutes depending on whether or not you're cooking from frozen).

Serving Suggestions

1. The original recipe suggests sautéeing the cooked pasta in some butter with poppy seeds and then topping with grated Parmesan. This is okay, but doesn't seem like an ideal complement.
2. Next time I'd try crème fraîche mixed with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and then serve topped with Parmesan. Maybe add a touch of milk and/or white wine to the sauce if the consistency needs adjusting.

Did you know that gnocchi is actually pretty easy to make? And incredibly delicious? And actually reasonably nutritious? Especially when you make it with bright, flavourful, colourful sweet potatoes! I need to write this recipe down because we will be making it again.

Honestly, I'm craving it again already...

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Greens and Sage Butter Sauce

Slightly adapted from Pinch of Yum

Ingredients

Gnocchi

• 450-500g sweet potatoes
• 1 c. whole milk ricotta
• 1/4 c. Parmesan
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• ~1 c. all-purpose or hard/strong/bread/high grade flour

Greens and Sauce

• 1 small broccoli crown, cut into florettes
• 1 small bunch black kale, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 Tbsp. dried sage (or ~6 fresh leaves)
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 c. Parmesan
• pepper, to taste
• lemon wedges, to serve (optional)

Directions

Gnocchi

1. Prick sweet potato(es) with fork, wrap in damp paper towels, and microwave until tender. (~5-7 minutes)
2. Scoop flesh from skin. Discard skins.
3. Mash flesh with ricotta, Parmesan, and sea salt.
4. If the mixture seems dry, add a couple Tbsp. of water to loosen it up.
5. Mix in flour ~1/4 c. at a time until a soft dough forms.
6. If you like your gnocchi soft and light and pillowy, try not to work the dough too much and handle the resulting dumplings very gently as they'll be prone to breaking up. If you like your gnocchi firm and chewy, knead the dough to develop the gluten a little.
7. Working on a floured surface, form the dough into a loaf.
8. Cut a slice from the loaf and roll it into a rope.
9. Cut the rope into ~2cm pieces.
10. Repeat with remaining dough.
11. Boil the gnocchi until it floats and toss with a little olive oil to prevent sticking. Reserve the cooking water.

Greens and Sauce

1. Once the gnocchi has been boiled, add the broccoli and kale to the boiling water and blanch for 1 minute. Drain and set aside.
2. Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large pan.
3. Add the gnocchi and cook until outside is brown and crisp.
4. Add garlic, broccoli, kale, sage, and salt and cook for another few minutes.
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.
6. Stir in cream and Parmesan.
7. Add pepper to taste.
8. Serve with lemon wedges if desired.

I was surprised to see that Edmonds' vegetarian lasagne recipe didn't involve any tomato sauce. It also called for a huge amount of cheese but hardly any spinach or walnuts! Only 130g and 50g respectively. I upped the spinach to 300g and the walnuts to 100g. I think that gave a decent amount of spinach, but I still felt like it could've done with more walnuts. Especially since the walnuts are apparently meant to be one of the key components going by the title.

Spinach and Walnut Lasagne

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 1 recipe cheese sauce
• 300g frozen chopped spinach
• 225g ricotta
• 150g chopped walnuts
• 300g grated mozzarella, divided
• salt and pepper
• 50-100g blue cheese¹
• up to 250g lasagne noodles, ready to use²
• 1 (370g) jar roasted red bell peppers
• 2-3 Tbsp. roasted garlic purée

Directions

1. Make the cheese sauce and set aside.
2. Thaw the spinach and press out as much liquid as possible.
3. Combine the spinach, ricotta, walnuts, 200g of mozzarella, and blue cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Place a layer of lasagne noodles in the bottom of a greased lasagne pan.
5. Spread a thin layer of roasted garlic over the noodles.
6. Spread a layer of spinach mixture over the garlic.
7. Pour some of the cheese sauce over the spinach.
8. Put a layer of roasted red peppers over the cheese sauce.
9. Repeat the layers as many times as possible ending with a cheese sauce layer.
10. Sprinkle with the remaining 100g of mozzarella.
11. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 1 hour.

---

¹ The recipe calls for an optional 100g blue cheese so I added 100g Rosenberg Danish blue to my spinach mixture. It was delicious. That said the blue cheese overpowered basically everything else in the dish. And some things that weren't! (The container of whipped cream that sat next to the lasagne in the fridge ended up tasting very faintly of blue cheese after a couple days.) Next time I think I'd either scale the blue cheese back to 50g or use a milder blue if going with the full 100g. I really like Danish blue, but it might be nice to try it with Gorgonzola dolce or saint agur at some point. ^Back
2 I must've made my layers a lot thicker than they did because I was only able to get two repetitions of each thing in before I ran out of spinach mixture and cheese sauce. This meant that I didn't use nearly the full 250g of pasta. ^Back

Fettucini al Pesto di Noci (Fettucini with Walnut Pesto)

From The Classic Pasta Cookbook, this recipe comes together very quickly. It's worth noting that since the sauce is uncooked, the garlic has much more of an edge to it than usual; I habitually go heavy on the garlic, but in this recipe symbol found that excessive. Thus, I've recorded the garlic as originally written in the recipe and not the 3-4x as much that I actually put in.

It calls for using a "blender or food processor" to prepare the pesto. It did not work particularly well with our blender, so if you have a food processor instead I recommend using that. It was still better than not using the blender at all, although to get any meaningful blending I had to add the cream while it was in the blender rather than folding it in later.

Ingredients, for 450g dry, store-bought pasta

• 250g shelled walnuts
• 5mL finely chopped garlic
• 30mL extra virgin olive oil
• 64mL ricotta
• 64mL heavy cream
• 64mL freshly grated parmesan

Procedure

1. In the background, boil the water for the pasta and cook the pasta al dente; reserve the water.
2. Put the walnuts and garlic in a food processor or blender and blend/chop finely.
3. Add the olive oil and blend in.
4. Add the ricotta and blend in. Season with salt to taste.
5. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the cream.
6. When the pasta is cooked al dente, transfer 64mL of the pasta water to the pesto and stir it in. Drain the pasta.
7. Toss the pasta with the pesto, top with cheese, and serve immediately.