RECIPE - Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you might as well make it good, right? Breakfast food really resonates with me; salty pork, crispy potatoes, runny eggs, toast...it really doesn't get much better. I don't really have a dog in the fight between pancakes and waffles, unless the pancakes are stuffed. Chocolate chips or blueberries are classic additions, but add a mixture of lemon zest and ricotta cheese, and you'll create believers in the almighty pancake.

I took this recipe directly from CHOW; follow up with it there if you like, or use my shorthand directions here. 

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for coating the frying pan and serving
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 large eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon packed finely grated lemon zest (from about 2 to 3 medium lemons)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
• Powdered sugar, fruit, or maple syrup, for serving (optional)
• 
  
• 1. Melt the butter in the milk and let cool.
  2. Sift the flour, baking powder, and 1/2 tea. of salt together.
  3. Separate eggs, keeping whites and yolks. Mix yolks, 1 tab. sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla together. Add cooled milk/butter mixture slowly in doses so you don't cook the eggs. Mix until smooth, then incorporate dry mixture from step 2.
  4. Whip egg whites until you get soft peaks. Halfway through, add the rest of the sugar and salt. Fold the whites into the mixture. 
  5. Add ricotta. The ricotta should be streaky and lumpy in the mixture; do not overmix the batter.
  6. Heat pan and add butter. Use 1/4 cup doses to make pancakes. Flip once you see bubbles on the top of the pancakes. Cook second side for only a minute or two.
  
  
  Now, I served mine with a fruit salad. I really like the salad from Chez Shea, a mix of pears and pecans. I made a simple homemade version, dicing a pear, a granny smith apple, some mint, and adding some roasted pecans. Instead of a champagne vinaigrette, I used some lemon-lime soda and lemon juice. The salad was alright, but I suggest you chop the pecans or season them. It was definitely better as leftovers, when the soda had a chance to permeate the fruit. Happy eating!

RECIPE - Skillet Pizza

Yesterday, I decided to try out J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's recipe for homemade Neapolitan-style dough. I've been wanting to find a good dough recipe, and following Mr. Food Lab's advice is almost always a good place to start.

The recipe itself is ridiculously simple. I cut it in half for my first go:

2 cups flour. (Almost all serious pizzaioli will recommend '00' flour, which is much more finely ground than what most of us have on hand, but even regular all-purpose flour (which I used) is just fine.)

1 1/8 t. salt. (I used sea salt; Kenji calls for kosher.)

1/2 t. active dry yeast.

1 t. sugar.

6 oz. water.  

Combine dry ingredients and add water until the dough just comes together. You can do this with a mixer or by hand. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes, then knead it again for 10 minutes. You can add a little more flour or water if you need to; the dough should almost be sticking to the bowl, but will keep together. At this point, you can put the dough in plastic bags on in covered bowls and keep it in the refrigerator. I let mine sit in a plastic bag for a day in the fridge.

When you're ready, portion the dough. Use whatever method you like to stretch the skins, but make sure to handle the edge as little as possible; you want to keep it slightly thicker than the rest of the dough. You should also prep your toppings; I cooked a can of diced tomatoes down with a little salt and fresh basil, sliced fresh mozzarella, and picked more basil leaves. Move your oven racks as high as you can while still leaving room for your widest, thickest, heaviest, oven-safe skillet. Dust the inside of the skillet with flour, making sure to tap out the excess, and heat the skillet under the broiler. Kenji recommends heating until the skillet is just smoking. This will go quickly.

Being very careful from here on, remove the skillet (always, always use a hot pad or thick towel. Even that handle you're so used to grabbing is going to be very hot.) Place a skin of dough in the skillet; ideally, you'll want the dough to take up the entire base of the skillet but not climb the walls. Quickly add sauce and toppings, then return to the broiler.

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Your pizza will cook very quickly; probably no more than five minutes and probably less than three. Again, be very careful when handling the skillet. Remove the skillet from the oven and slide the pizza onto a plate or peel. Drizzle with olive oil and add last minute toppings, then serve. Bonus points for serving the pizza whole, arming your guests only with scissors to cut slices from the pie. Re-flour/re-heat your skillet for the next pizza. It's that simple!

Margherita.

Mozzarella and Egg.

RECIPE - Parmesan Chips

This quick chip is ridiculously easy to make and is a nice addition to dips, soups, and salads.

Ingredients:
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (not prepackaged shredded. It's very waxy and doesn't melt well.)
Dried oregano and/or basil, to taste
Fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Grate the cheese and mix in herbs and pepper. Make small piles of the mixture on a baking sheet and spread until just thin enough that you can see slivers of the baking sheet through the cheese. Bake at 350 for 2-4 minutes, until melted and beginning to color. Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 seconds. Using a spatula, gently remove from the baking sheet. Immediately drape over a dowel and seal the overlap to make tubes, press into muffin tin to make cups, or let sit flat to make chips. While still warm, you can slice the chips into strips. Arrange in a salad, on top of a soup (immediately before serving to avoid sogginess,) with a dip, or just as a snack.