Penne with Spinach and Ricotta

I love fresh ricotta.  And the fresh ricotta we have in the fridge has been begging for another use.  I had various ideas about what to make with the ricotta, but I settled on a simple pasta recipe.  I thought about making gnocchi or gnudi, but then decided to go with a simpler recipe.  I also thought about making some sort of baked pasta with ricotta, but it's too warm to bake pasta right now.  In the end I picked a recipe on Food & Wine from Lidia Bastianich because it looked easy and we had everything we needed, except the spinach and the sage, in the fridge.  I was originally thinking of making up my own pasta recipe using spinach and ricotta with lemon zest, but I decided to try this recipe instead.  The recipe actually called for pappardelle, but we had penne in the cupboard.  So we went with that instead.  

This pasta isn't going to win any awards for being new and original, or unbelievably delicious.  And if all you have is grocery store ricotta I would steer clear.  But with the wonderful fresh ricotta we picked up from the farmer's market it was actually quite good!  The fresh ricotta gave it a very pleasant creaminess and richness and the Parm-Reg gave it some more robust, salty flavor.  I never would have thought to pair fresh sage with baby spinach, scallions and fresh ricotta.  When I think sage I think Thanksgiving or butternut squash.  I don't think fresh ricotta and spinach.  But it worked.  The only problem was that the ricotta didn't cling to the pasta very well so some bites were essentially plain pasta, whereas others were full of spinach and ricotta.  Oh well. 

Recipe after the jump!

Zucchini Carpaccio with Ricotta

I really love cooked zucchini (or squash), but somehow raw zucchini never quite does it for me.  I stil like raw zucchini, but when it comes down to it I would prefer it cooked.  This is the third raw zucchini dish that we have tried in the past few years.  Last summer we tried a Zucchini Crudo and a Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan Pine Nuts.  All three of the raw zucchini salads were good - light, fresh and summery, but I think that I prefer Red Cat's Quick Saute of Zucchini, Whole Wheat Penne Rigate with Summer Squash and Ricotta, Disappearing Zucchini Orzo and Ad Hoc's Summer Vegetable Gratin.  This carpaccio was no exception.  It was good, but I really wanted there to be something more to it.  The fresh ricotta was lovely, and the basil was too, but it lacked anything to make it really stand out.  I told Alex that in the future I would make this dish as a side if I were to have say an Easter dinner with baked ham and a bunch of sides because it's easy to make (bonus points since it doesn't require any cooking) and it's beautiful to look at.  Don't get me wrong, the dish is far from bad, it's just that it's not amazing either.  I have been waiting to post the recipe since last Sunday because I just didn't know what to say.  I still don't but I figured at this point I might as well go ahead and say what little there is to be said and call it a day.

Recipe after the jump!

Peach, Prosciutto and Ricotta Crostini

When I was younger my favorite restaurant was an Italian restaurant in Rockville, Maryland called Il Pizzico.  They had a few dishes that I loved - a shrimp and tomato crostini, a pasta with stewed calamari and dessert called "chocolate salami."  We started going there for dinner when it was a really small cafe with a glass case at the front full of desserts and stopped going after it got all fancy and expensive.  I believe Il Pizzico was also my first experience with tiramisu, but I didn't grow to love tiramisu until years later.  Once they fancied the restaurant up, they took all of our favorite dishes off the menu in favor of other, less homestyle dishes and raised prices dramatically.  So that was the end of that.  I haven't been back to Il Pizzico in at least 15 years, but it had a lasting effect on my diet - my love of crostini stems from meals I ate at that restaurant.  I really should ask my mother what went in the crostini aside from shrimp, scallions and tomatoes because she used to make a version of it at home that I would love to recreate.  And I am determined to make chocolate salami eventually just to see if it can possibly be as good as I remember it being. 

Back in June of this year Bon Appetit had an article called "Summer Crostini 7 Ways."  Two of the recipes from that article immediately caught my eye - this one, and a recipe for Tomato, Mozzarella and Thai Basil Crostini that we made about a month ago.  There are a few other recipes that I want to try from that issue (including one for Peas, Mint and Parmesan Crostini), but I figure I will get around to them eventually.  I decided this morning that these crostini would be the perfect light lunch served alongside a simple arugula salad.  We had some of the really nice local ricotta that I picked up from Whole Foods the other day left in the fridge, so we went to the farmers' market this morning and picked up some fresh peaches and some ciabatta bread.  Then we wandered down to Salumeria Rosi to pick up some of their amazing prosciutto.  By the time we accomplished all that it was about 12:45 pm and I was starving so we whipped up some crostini.  I really liked this recipe, but Alex and I both agreed that the Tomato, Mozzarella and Thai Basil Crostini was better.  Alex wanted there to be more prosciutto on each crostini, but that's because he is obsessed.  I thought the amount of prosciutto he wanted totally obscured the flavor of the ricotta and the fresh peaches.  The recipe is inspired by the traditional Italian combination of prosciutto and melon and all in all, I think in this case traditional might be better.  While I enjoyed the summery flavors of this crostini, the combination of peach and prosciutto wasn't quite as successful to me.  Even so I thought it was a really lovely lunch.

Recipe after the jump!

Summertime Lasagna

Lasagna is not something that I make very often.  It is just far too time consuming.  I think I have only made two lasagnas in all of the years that I have been cooking - a Wild Mushroom Lasagna from Gourmet that I made for Thanksgiving a few years back (it was totally fabulous btw so I highly recommend making it) and this "summertime lasagna," which was only a lasagna in that lasagna noodles were layered with veggies and ricotta.  It makes a great summertime version of lasagna because you don't have to bake it in the oven and heat up the whole house.  Plus it just feels so much lighter.  The traditional balance of noodle to filling is turned upside down and this becomes a celebration of fresh ricotta, tomatoes and zucchini than a gooey, cheesy lasagna.  I really liked it and Alex did too.  In the future I might try drizzling the burst cherry tomatoes with a little aged balsamic for a little more acidity and sweetness.  If you are going to make this dish I would recommend picking up some local fresh ricotta (or making your own) because it's so much richer and more flavorful than the ricotta you pick up from the grocery store.  I also recommend using fresh cherry tomatoes (we used a mix of sun golds and traditional red cherry tomatoes) and zucchinis (we used Italian striped zucchini) from the farmers' market.  Since this dish is so simple and lacks the cheese and tomato sauce or bechamel of a baked lasagna, you really need to make sure your individual ingredients are as fresh and delicious as possible.  If you do that you will end up with a really nice dish.  If you use out of season cherry tomatoes and a tub of ricotta from the grocery store, it might end up being a little blah.  So I guess it's a summertime dish in more than name.

Recipe after the jump!

Scrambled Eggs with Chives and Ricotta

I have been making different versions of this dish since I first discovered adding chives to scrambled eggs back in high school.  I was over at one of my friends' houses after school and she made us scrambled eggs for an after school snack and tossed in some chives.  I'm not even sure I knew what chives were at that point in time, but I loved them.  Prior to that the only thing I had ever added to scrambled eggs was sauteed onions (my dad is firmly of the belief that you can never have too many onions in your eggs).  I had never cooked my scrambled eggs in butter prior to that either, but I totally stole that from her as well. After that I started stocking jars of dried chives and packets of frozen chives in the kitchen, both of which work in a pinch, but I really recommend using fresh chives whenever possible.  Anyway, the dairy I use in this dish varies.  Sometimes I use ricotta, sometimes I throw in a tablespoon of heavy cream in my eggs and add a pinch of Parmigiano-Regiano, sometimes I use creme fraiche.  But I always use some sort of dairy because I really like the creaminess that a bit of dairy adds to scrambled eggs.  I also love serving some nice toasted bread (baguette is my personal favorite, but we used ciabatta this time) with my eggs.  So go ahead and play with it - but definitely try the chives because they are fantastic.

Recipe after the jump!

Ricotta Gnocchi

Ricotta gnocchi sounds delicious, doesn't it?  It brings to mind light, fluffy, pillowy goodness.  And when I found this recipe on Mark Bittman's blog on the NY Times, I couldn't resist making it.  Who knew homemade gnocchi was so easy to make?  Anyway, these gnocchi were pillowy and delicious, but they were far from light.  Instead they were very rich.  And I mean very very rich.  Then again, if I had really thought about it, I would have expected them to be rich - they were essentially made of cheese (ricotta and Parmigiano-Reggiano), eggs, and flour, and then tossed with butter.  It's kind of a given that they would be rich.  I have had actual potato gnocchi that somehow seemed lighter to me (or at least less rich).  But, regardless of how rich they were, these gnocchi are delicious and full of cheesy goodness.  I think I will add a few more sage leaves in the future (we used the 10 that Mark Bittman called for) because I didn't get quite as much sage flavor as I wanted.  Instead the dish tasted almost exclusively of browned butter and cheese.  Which isn't really a bad thing if you think about it...

Recipe after the jump!

Fig, Prosciutto and Ricotta Crostini

With all of the fresh figs I purchased from Eataly yesterday I knew I had to do something else with them.  Luckily I had also picked up some nice crusty bread, some 18-month aged Prosciutto di Parma, and some fresh ricotta from Salvatore Bklyn (which in my opinion makes the best fresh ricotta you can find in NYC).  So I threw together these crostini.  There is no real recipe, instead you just toast some fresh bread, then slather it with fresh ricotta and top with arugula, prosciutto and quartered figs.  Then you drizzle honey over the top and season with freshly ground black pepper and just a touch of salt.  Since there is no cooking involved and very few ingredients, it is pretty important to get the very best prosciutto, ricotta and figs that you can.  I'll be honest and admit that our honey came straight out of a honey bear squeeze bottle and the arugula was the kind you buy pre-washed in bags at the grocery store.  If you're not a pork lover or you don't like arugula, you can feel free to omit the prosciutto and the arugula and just serve crostini topped with ricotta, figs, honey, s&p.  Or you can just play around with a variety of ingredients until you find a combination that suits you. 

Baked Squash Blossoms with Ricotta, Basil and Mint

Today at the farmer's market behind the Museum of Natural History I was struck by the number of vendors selling squash blossoms, as well as how lovely the squash blossoms looked.  Since we had no dinner plans for the evening, I picked up a dozen squash blossoms.  On our way home Alex and I were discussing what to do with our squash blossoms.  In the past we have had the most success when we made fritattas with our squash blossoms (once we tried to simply saute them and somehow it just wasn't very good).  We have been talking about making squash blossom quesadillas for awhile as well, but seeing as we just had quesadillas last Friday we wanted to try something else.  Instead we decided to make "fried" squash blossoms by breading them with panko breadcrumbs and then baking them in the oven.

So I would say these squash blossoms aren't one of our biggest successes, but they were quite good.  Alex said that the filling needed some crushed red pepper flakes and I might have to agree with him.  The filling definitely needed something additional to make it sing.  Perhaps if we had served the squash blossoms on top of a white pizza with lots of garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, and a little Italian parsley, or a pasta dish they would have been a star, but served on their own they didn't quite get there.  The filling was tasty - nice and fresh, and the breading was nicely crispy, but something was missing.  Perhaps a dipping sauce?  Or perhaps baked squash blossoms just can't compare with their fried counterparts.  Thoughts?

Recipe after the jump!