Peach Crostini with Prosciutto and Ricotta

Is there anything better than a sweet, juicy peach right smack in the middle of summer?  A gorgeous, fat peach that you can almost taste just from the velvety smell of it?  

We are in the midst of a bit of a peach controversy in our house due to this recent article in The New York Times.  The Southern husband was brought up deep in the heart of Georgia which is, as he has pointed out about a thousand times lately, The Peach State.

The teenager, however, is now a full-fledged member of the Clemson University community, located in the great state of South Carolina.  And according to the Times, South Carolina has shipped double the amount of peaches as Georgia this year.  And being the enthusiastic, faithful Clemson Tiger that she now is, she is throwing her hat into South Carolina's ring, peach-wise.

This character is also originally from South Carolina, where she was rescued as a wee puppy.

However, she will pretty much eat anything, anywhere, from anyplace, so she's not taking sides.  She'd also love it if someone would PLEASE throw that dang Frisbee for her already.

Personally,  I'd just like to note for the record that the state in third place, with 32,000 tons of peaches is, yes, New Jersey.  However, regardless of where you get your peaches, make sure you get some just so you can try this nifty little appetizer.  Toast up some thin slices of french bread and top them with a spoonful of ricotta cheese and some fresh ground pepper.  Now lay a few shreds of prosciutto on the cheese, drizzle with a little honey, and top with a peach slice or two.

It's enough to make the peach factions lay down their arms and come together for a quick snack!

Peach Crostini with Prosciutto and Ricotta, adapted slightly from Bon Appetit

• 12 slices french bread


• 1 ripe peach


• 12 tablespoons fresh ricotta


• Freshly ground black pepper


• 4 thin slices prosciutto


• Honey

1. Preheat ovem to 350.  Brush bread slices with olive oil and bake until just crisp, about 10 minutes.


2. Halve, pit, and thinly slice peach.


3. Spoon about 1 tablespoon ricotta onto each toast and sprinkle with ground pepper. 


4. Tear prosciutto into feathery pieces and drape a few slices over ricotta on each.


5. Drizzle each with honey and top with 2 peach slices.

Print this!

Zucchini Pasta with Ricotta

So, how's the zucchini out by you these days?  Here in sultry New Jersey it has us surrounded, which is as good an excuse as any to make this easy pasta dish for supper...and which in turn lets me indulge two of my favorite things to do; using my lethal weapon of a mandoline, and making yet another pot of fresh ricotta.  Neither one of which should scare you off, since you can make this dish perfectly nicely with a regular knife and ricotta from the store, but I'm just saying.

Anyway, slice up your zucchini into nice long strips in whatever way you like to do it, and roasted them with a little olive oil until they are nice and golden and wonderful.  In the meantime, cook up a pot of linguine, and make sure you save a little of the pasta water before you drain it.  (This is a good basic rule in life...a little pasta water can do amazing things for pretty much any pasta sauce that needs just a teeny bit of loosening.)  

Now toss that pasta sauce with a little olive oil and salt and pepper, and then gently stir in some of your roasted zucchini.  Drizzle in a little of the pasta water if you think it needs it.  Top with some ricotta (and if you do want to make your own, click here for my favorite - and quick! - way to make it), and a little lemon zest.  Done!

Take that, zucchini!

Zucchini Pasta with Ricotta, from Everyday Food

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
• 2 pounds zucchini, thinly sliced lengthwise
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 pound linguine
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup ricotta

1. Preheatoven to 450. Brush two rimmed baking sheets with oil. Arrange zucchiniin a single layer on sheets and brush tops with oil; season with saltand pepper. Roast zucchini until tender and lightly golden in parts, 25to 30 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.
   
2. Meanwhile,in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook linguine according topackage instructions. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add oil, lemonzest, and zucchini and toss to combine. Serve pasta topped with ricotta.

Print this!

How To Make Fresh Ricotta

Okay, the first thing I have to say is, hang in there with me for a few minutes.  I know you are thinking, make your own cheese?  REALLY?  Here on this blog where I have said about a million times, it's all about getting in and out of the kitchen in 30 minutes or less?  Has she finally eaten one too many piece of bacon and gone off her rocker?  

Hang in there with me while I promise you these three things:

1. If you can boil water, you can make your own ricotta cheese.

2. It will take you less than 15 minutes from start to finish.

3. It will taste so good, you will wonder why on earth it took you so long
to figure out that you should have been making
your own ricotta cheese for the past hundred years.

4. It will take all your willpower not to stand there next to
your bowl of delicious fresh ricotta
and not eat it all in one fell swoop.

Okay, that's four things, and I have no idea what a fell swoop is.  But you get my drift.  Try it with me just once, and I promise you will be hooked for life.  Here's what you do.

Get out your handy strainer and put it in your sink.  Line it with a little cheesecloth, which you can find in your supermarket, sometimes with the baking stuff and sometimes with the laundry stuff, for mysterious reasons.  I usually fold it into a square that has about 3-4 layers until it looks like this.  This will take you two minutes.

Now take a nice heavy saucepan and pour in 4 cups of whole milk, one cup of buttermilk, and 1/3 cup of heavy cream.  Set it on the stove and put the heat on to medium high and bring it to a boil.  In the early going, you may want to clip a candy thermometer on to the pot so you can watch the temperature, because when the temperature gets to about 185 degrees, the curds (the solid part) will have separated from the whey (the liquid part), and it's time to strain it.  If you don't have thermometer don't fret, because you can pretty much see it happening.  The milk mixture will boil, and it will gradually curdle and separate into the solids (the curds) and the watery looking liquid (the whey).  This will take about 10 minutes...sometimes less.  When it does, take the pot off the burner and reach for your handy slotted spoon, and start scooping out the solids, letting the liquid drain off.  Drop the spoonfuls of solids into your strainer.

I like to sprinkle a little coarse salt onto the cheese every couple of spoonfuls or so.  Once you are done, let it drain for about 2 minutes (if you like your ricotta moist) or 5 minutes (if you like it drier).  You can leave it right in the strainer, or you can be like I was when I first made it and hang it dramatically from your kitchen faucet (see picture above).  Taste it after a few minutes...if it's gotten too dry just stir in a tablespoon or two of milk, and if it's too moist for you, let it keep draining.

Fifteen minutes have now passed, and you have made your own ricotta cheese.

And if you are like me, you will never even LOOK at those ricotta containers in the supermarket again.  

Things you can make with your glorious ricotta include...

Summer Lasagna.  A cool lasagna that includes fresh zucchini, sweet little cherry tomatoes, basil from your back yard...and ricotta.

Zucchini Carpaccio.  Almost as fun to pronounce as it is to eat.  Almost.

Or you can cook up some soft scrambled eggs with fresh chives and during the last minute of cooking, swirl in some ricotta.  Heaven.

Or you can just stand there at your kitchen counter and eat it with the closest available spoon.   I may or may not have done this at times.

Happy fresh ricotta.  No fear!

Easy Fresh Ricotta, adapted from the 101 Cookbooks recipe

• 4 cups whole milk
• One cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• Coarse salt

1. Line a fine mesh strainer with several folds of cheesecloth and set it in your sink.

2. Combine milk, buttermilk and cream in medium heavy saucepan over medium-high heat.  Bring to a boil until cooking thermometer registers 185 degrees...if you don't have a thermometer, keep an eye on it to see when the curds (the solid white parts) are mostly separated from the whey (the cloudy liquid).  This will take about 10 minutes...stir a couple of times during the boiling process.

3. Remove from heat and using a slotted spot, scoop spoonfuls of the curd into the cheesecloth-lined strainer, sprinkling with a little salt every few spoonfuls or so.

4. Let the ricotta drain for about 5 minutes and then taste to check the consistency.  If you like it drier, then let it drain a little more.  If you like it moister, stir in a tablespoon or two of milk.  This ricotta is best used right away, but will keep for a day or two in the fridge. 

Print this!

Baked Potato with Ricotta and Tomatoes

There is just something so comforting about a baked potato, don't you think?    Add in the fact that baked potatoes are actually GOOD for you, and you are looking at one satisfying lunch or supper, all in one easy to make package.

In this case, I rubbed my potatoes with a little olive oil and popped them in the oven while I made a batch of fresh ricotta (side note: I love making ricotta cheese.  It is SO easy, and tastes so fresh and good.  But as always, feel free to use store-bought ricotta. )  I roasted up some cherry tomatoes as well, and by the time all that was done the potatoes were nice and tender.  Then all you do is split them open, spoon on some ricotta, scatter the tomatoes on top, drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle some fresh thyme on top.  That's all you need to do to be in baked potato heaven. 

And trust me, if you can't get into Bacon Heaven, Baked Potato Heaven is the next best place.

Baked Potato with Ricotta and Tomatoes, adapted from Real Simple

• 2 russet potatoes
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon and one tablespoon of olive oil plus extra for drizzling
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh thyme
• 1 cup fresh ricotta

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Rub the potatoes with a teaspoon of olive oil, place on a baking sheet and bake until they are tender when pierced with a knife, about one hour or so.
2. Line a baking sheet with foil and toss the tomatoes with a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of coarse salt and a grinding of black pepper.  15 minutes before the potatoes are done, pop the sheet of tomatoes in there with them and roast them until they start to split.
3. Split the potatoes (you can either cut them in half for four people or just make an X down the middle and push them open for two especially hungry people).  Top with ricotta cheese, roasted tomatoes and fresh thyme.

Print this!

Zucchini Carpaccio

Here's the latest in the Friday Night Lights series of light suppers the Southern husband and I have been having lately.   It's nice and light and involves one of my favorite things in life, which is fresh ricotta cheese.  First of all, I love to make ricotta.  It is one of the easiest things in the world to make and when you are done (in about 10 minutes) you feel supremely worldly and intelligent for being able to make your own ricotta cheese.  I use a recipe you can find by clicking here, but I add in about 1/4 cup of heavy cream, which makes it, well, creamier.

Second of all, I love to eat ricotta, and therein lies a confession about this particular post.  After I took that picture up there, and the one below, I went back and added a bunch more ricotta.  I wanted you to be able to see all the nice layered zucchini slices, but I also wanted to be able to eat lots and lots of fresh ricotta, and there you go.

Once you've made the ricotta the rest of this dish is a snap.  Slice the zucchini as thin as you can get it.  I used a  Mandoline Slicer, but you could also use just a plain old knife, if you are a really good thin zucchini slicing type of person.  Then arrange them in a pretty pattern on a pretty plate.  Drizzle with a mixture of fresh lemon juice and nice olive oil, scatter on some chopped scallions, grind on some fresh pepper, and spoon on as much ricotta as you can handle.  (I can handle a LOT).  Then chop up a handful of fresh basil (or any other herb that catches your fancy), and that's it!  We ate this in our usual Friday Night Lights style - cuddled up on the couch from one plate with some jazz on the stereo -- but it would be a great side dish for grilled steak or chicken.  And its almost, almost grilling season!

Happy sigh.

Zucchini Carpaccio,  from Bon Appetit

• 5 medium zucchini, trimmed
• Coarse kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• One cup ricotta cheese, preferably fresh
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1. Using knife or mandoline slicer, cut zucchini into paper-thin rounds. 

2. Arrange rounds, slightly overlapping, on large platter. Sprinkle lightly with coarse salt and pepper, then green onions. 

3. Whisk lemon juice and oil in small bowl. Drizzle dressing evenly over zucchini. 

4. Drop small spoonfuls of cheese all over zucchini. Sprinkle with basil and serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Grilled Asparagus Ricotta Pizza

I'm still not exactly sure where summer went, because I think it was pretty much last week that I was planting my herbs and throwing all the windows in the house open...but the leaves are just starting to get that look...

...and so I am laying on the grill recipes while there is still time.  Not that the Southern husband won't go out and grill in the snow...but somehow, it's not the same.  And along with this summer's favorite grill recipe, which is Buttermilk Grilled Chicken, one of my top choices for the grill is grilled pizza.  This summer we have had the classic cheese and basil grilled pizza, a fabulous bacon and rosemary grilled pizza, and most recently that little number pictured above, which is a grilled asparagus and ricotta cheese pizza.

(Side note: I used to drive myself crazy trying to roll the pizza dough out into a perfect little circle, until one day I realized that I actually liked the abstract shapes better.  Which is why that particular pizza kind of looks like Snoopy's head, only without the ears.)

Anyway.  I used my foolproof pizza dough recipe from Cooks Illustrated, which never ever lets me down.  Roast some asparagus in the oven and get your hands on some fresh ricotta (you can buy it at the supermarket, or you can be crazy like me and make your own.  It's not hard, I promise.).  Grill up that pizza dough on your grill, slather it with ricotta, lay the asparagus on top, drizzle it with some olive oil and some grated parmesan cheese and a good grinding of black pepper.  It's almost enough to make the end of summer bearable...that and the thought of all those pumpkin recipes in our near future.

Grilled Asparagus Ricotta Pizza

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup water at room temperature
• 2 cups bread flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• One large bunch thin asparagus
• 2 cups fresh ricotta
• Olive oil for drizzling
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Fresh ground pepper

1. Mix water and oil

2. Add bread flour, sugar, salt and yeast to food processor. Pulse once or twice to mix.

3. While running, add water mixture through tube.  Process until dough forms a ball that clears the sides of the bowl.  If dough doesn't form a ball, add more flour one tablespoon at a time until it does.

4. Transfer dough to mixing bowl sprayed with olive oil.  Cover and let rise for 2 hours.

5. Right before you are going to make the pizza, roast the asparagus by tossing with a little olive oil and salt and roasting in a 425 degree oven for about 10 minutes.  Set aside.

6. Divide dough into 4 sections.  Roll into balls, dust with flour, and roll each one out to about a 6-8 inch size crust.  Don't worry if the shape isn't perfect, grilled pizza is supposed to look rustic!  Layer crusts in between wax paper.

7. Heat grill to medium high and lay crusts on grill.  Grill for about 5 minutes, lifting up to check every minute to make sure the crusts aren't cooking too fast.  Pop any big dough bubbles with a knife.  When the first side is getting brown and charred, flip over with tongs and cook on other side until done.

8. Spread crust with fresh ricotta, top with asparagus and Parmesan.  Drizzle olive oil over all and top with fresh ground pepper.

Note: you can substitute soft goat cheese for the ricotta if you like.  Yum!

Click here for printable recipe

 

Panzanella!

Panzanella! Isn't that a great word? And if you saw it actually being said by my pale, freckled, Irish girl self you would laugh your head off, because it really needs to be said with a fabulous Italian accent to get the true benefit. But no matter, it is wonderful and summery, and the perfect, perfect thing to make when tomatoes and basil are in full swing and the days are still too hot to even THINK of turning on the oven.

Basically, it is a bread salad that involves tossing chunks of crusty bread with tomatoes, basil, red onion and just enough vinegar and olive oil to soak into the bread and soften it up just a little bit. This particular version calls for a generous scoop of fresh ricotta on the top, which then gets drizzled with a little more olive oil. Some fresh ground pepper, and you are good to go.

Now, we ate this all by its gorgeous self, but I can also imagine it as a scrumptious side dish alongside grilled sliced steak or chicken. Yum, right? In any language.

Panzanella!  Adapted from Everyday Food

• 5 cups crusty bread, cut or torn into one each pieces
• 2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cut into one each pieces
• 1/2 small red onion, sliced thin
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1 cup basil leaves, torn
• 2 cups fresh ricotta

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Spread bread on a baking sheet and toast until golden, about 20 minutes.

2. Combine tomatoes, onion, vinegar and oil in a large bowl.  Season to taste with a little salt and pepper.  

3. Add toasted bread and basil and toss to combine.  Let sit for 20-30 minutes so bread can soak up the liquid.

4. Divide among plates and top with a generous spoonful of ricotta, a drizzle of olive oil, and a little more salt and pepper.

Click here for printable recipe

Summer Lasagne

This recipe made me ridiculously happy in every way.

First of all, it is one of those recipes that looks like you slaved over it for hours when really you messed around in the kitchen for about 20 minutes. Second, it takes full advantage of the fresh and wonderful summer veggies that are starting to trickle in -- young fresh basil, sweet cherry tomatoes, and zucchini. Third, it is yet another recipe that calls for fresh ricotta, thereby helping me satisfy my new obsession with making my own ricotta (and as always, you feel free to buy your ricotta at the supermarket, the way well-adjusted people do.) Fourth, the reason it is called "Summer Lasagne" is because you don't bake it. Nope, no oven required.

Last but not least, it was SO photogenic. Like this baby I know, it looked good in every single shot.

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:

Both scrumptious, right??

Here's the recipe. For the lasagne, I mean...not the baby.

Summer Lasagne, adapted from Everyday Food

• 1 cup ricotta
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 8 lasagne noodles, broken into thirds, cooked and drained
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup torn basil leaves

1. Combine ricotta, parmesan and olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

2. Heat oil in skillet over medium high and add garlic and tomatoes. Cook until slightly broken down, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl.

3. Add zucchini to skillet (with a little more oil if needed). Season with salt and pepper and cook about 5 minutes until tender. Transfer to another bowl.

4. Scatter a few tomatoes over four plates. Top with one noodle, a spoonful of ricotta mixture, zucchini and more tomatoes. Repeat layering twice, ending with noodle and tomatoes. Drizzle a little more olive oil on top. Garnish with basil and serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Lemon Ricotta Potatoes

Okay, so I don't usually get too worked up about side dishes. I tend towards those dishes that pretty much feature all the food groups and courses in one handy pan. That's why I love Shepherd's Pie, and Chili Dog Casserole, and pretty much anything with pasta in it. But every once in a while a side dish comes along and steals my heart. That's what happened with these gorgeous little potatoes.

It might have been because they feature ricotta cheese. I have recently learned how to make my own ricotta cheese, and so my ricotta cheese radar is on high alert. You can feel free to be a normal person and buy your own ricotta cheese (Whole Foods has great fresh ricotta), or you can join me in home-made ricotta cheese paradise by clicking here. In any case, you need some ricotta cheese...

And a couple of these...

And the best olive oil you can find. I get mine at the wonderful Palisades Indoor Farmer's Market, and if you live in the northern New Jersey/Southern New York area, you must check this out. Olive oil, fresh veggies, cheese, fish, jam, glorious baked goods....yes, yes, yes.

Anyway, you cook up a bunch of baby red potatoes by drizzling them with olive oil, salt and pepper and wrapping them up in a foil packet. Bake the packet until the potatoes are tender. Let them cool just until you are able to press them open, and then you top them with a mixture made of the ricotta, some grated parmesan cheese and some lemon peel. Drizzle a little more olive oil on top, grind some fresh pepper, and you almost don't need a main course.

However, I live with the Southern husband, and so we had some beer and brown sugar-marinated rib-eye steak on the side of the lemon ricotta potatoes.

Life is good.

Lemon Ricotta Potatoes, adapted from Everyday Food

• 1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• Zest from 1/2 lemon
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil for drizzling

1. Preheat oven to 450. Place the potatoes on a 3 foot long piece of foil and drizzle with olive oil, coarse salt and ground pepper. Bring edges of foil together to make a sealed packet, place on baking pan and bake for 40 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, combine both cheeses, lemon zest and salt to taste. When potatoes are done, cool just until you can handle them, then cut a small X on each one and squeeze open.

3. Place a spoonful of the ricotta mixture on each potato, grind some pepper on top and drizzle a little more olive oil on top. Serve immediately.

Click here for printable recipe

Roasted Vegetable Lasagne

I am always a little skeptical about whether lasagna is really, truly worth it. I mean, we've all had it one million times, and it's always kinda the same. But every once in a while I run across a recipe that restores my faith in lasagna, and this was one of them. Roasted vegetable lasagna that involves a sauce made of roasted tomatoes and a filling that includes roasted butternut squash and sauteed spinach.

It all comes together for a beautiful layered look that melts the heart of even a lasagna-doubter like myself...

I used lovely fresh mozzarella and ricotta and that helped (and in case you have not heard me go on and on about my adventures in ricotta-making, please click here. Or you can do what normal people do and get your fresh ricotta at Whole Foods.)

So if you are looking for a delicious and different lasagna, this ones for you. It also uses those no-boil noodles that I never think are going to work but they always magically DO! It's one of the great mysteries in life.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagne, adapted from Everyday Foods

14 plum tomatoes (about 3 pounds total), halved lengthwise
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for baking dish
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and sliced inch thick
3 bunches (about 2 1/2 pounds total) spinach, trimmed and washed
1 container (15 ounces) part-skim ricotta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
9 to 12 no-boil lasagna noodles (from a 9-ounce package)
1 pound fresh mozzarella, cut into pieces

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss tomatoes with 2 tablespoons oil, oregano, and two-thirds the garlic; season with salt and pepper. Brush another rimmed baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil. Arrange squash in one layer; season with salt and pepper. Roast squash until tender, about 20 minutes, and tomatoes until slightly shriveled, about 40 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. In a blender or food processor, puree the tomato halves. Season with salt and pepper; set aside.

2. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Add remaining garlic and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Gradually add 2 pounds spinach and toss until wilted, about 4 minutes. Transfer spinach to a strainer and press to release liquid. When cool, chop spinach and season with salt and pepper. In a large bowl, mix ricotta, cup Parmesan, egg, and nutmeg until smooth; season with salt and pepper.

3. Lightly oil a 9-inch square baking dish. Spread one-quarter the tomato sauce in dish, top with 3 to 4 noodles, breaking to fit as needed. Top with half the ricotta mixture, the squash, one-quarter the tomato sauce, and 3 to 4 noodles. Top with remaining ricotta mixture, cooked spinach, one-quarter the sauce, and 3 to 4 noodles. Top with remaining sauce, 1/2 pound mozzarella, and cup Parmesan.

4. Set rack in middle of oven. Bake lasagna on a rimmed baking sheet until golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Let lasagna cool 15 minutes before serving.

Click here for printable recipe

Penne with Roasted Tomatoes and Fresh Ricotta

I just LOVE this recipe. It is simple and fast and so so so delicious. You can serve it hot or cool - it is completely flexible and agreeable. The one thing you absolutely MUST do is have is fresh and wonderful everything. Okay, the pasta can come out of a box, but the rest of it? Must be fresh. The little bits of lemon peel that you see on the top? Shaved off the lemon 2 minutes before the plate hit the table. The tomatoes? I had a whole dish of these babies....

I ate the green and the yellow ones, but the red ones got roasted with some fresh thyme and some fantastic olive oil. A good olive oil can make your whole life better.

And then we come to the ricotta. Now, before you read the rest of this post, please know that fresh ricotta is readily available in many places, including Whole Foods. And if you really must, you CAN use supermarket variety ricotta in this dish. But I had some extra time on my hands this weekend and I do love a challenge, and so yes, I did. I made my own ricotta.

And before you get all impressed with me, I have to confess that the hardest part of the whole ricotta-making process was taking that picture with the drip coming out of the cheesecloth bundle at exactly the right time. The rest of the ricotta-making process? Ridiculously easy. Ridiculously fast. And ridiculously delicious. I am never buying ricotta again. I mean, just look at it.

Isn't it beautiful? I am ridiculously proud of myself. If you are so inspired, you can get the recipe here. Salt it lightly and let it drain for only 5 to 10 minutes if you (like me) like your ricotta creamy. Or, just run to Whole Foods and buy some...but I promise you that making your own is actually a snap.

Anyway, whatever way you get your fresh ricotta, this recipe is lovely and easy and feels like spring. You roast up some cut up cherry tomatoes that are tossed with olive oil and fresh thyme. While the tomatoes are roasting, cook the penne until it is al dente, and then stir in just enough olive oil to keep it from sticking. Spoon it into bowls and top with some of the tomatoes, a few spoonfuls of the ricotta, some freshly grated lemon peel, a little coarse salt and a grinding of fresh pepper. That's it! It's also lovely at room temperature -- just let the pasta cool off for a little while after you add the olive oil and then proceed with the rest of it.




Happy spring, everyone.

Penne with Roasted Tomatoes and Fresh Ricotta, from Real Simple

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved (about 2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 10 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 pound penne, cooked according to the package directions
• 1 1/2 cups fresh ricotta
• zest of 1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 425º F. Arrange the tomatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil; season with the salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Scatter the thyme on top. Place in oven and bake until the tomatoes are soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2. Divide the cooled pasta among 6 large bowls. Spoon some the ricotta over each serving. Top with some of the tomatoes and thyme sprigs. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with lemon zest and pepper to taste just before serving.

Click here for printable recipe

Two-Pea Pasta with Ricotta and Tarragon

Over the lifetime of this blog you will probably get to read the word Fairway several thousand times, if you can hang in there that long. For those of you outside the NYC tri-state area, I apologize for torturing you with the fact that we inside the NYC tri-state area get to shop at the GREATEST MARKET ON EARTH. I heart Fairway. They have an amazing vegetable section with piles of both conventional and organic produce. They have every cheese on God's Green Earth. I think they have a pretty incredible bakery -- I try and avert my eyes and walk past it as fast as possible as I think you can probably gain 3 pounds just breathing the air next to the rack of warm bagels. And they have the widest selection of both organic and conventional dry groceries I have ever seen. I can actually buy organic brown rice and Pringles all in the same shopping trip. Whole Foods, I'm sorry, but I'm in love with somebody else. Which leads me to this recipe, which is pretty good made with regular A&P ingedients, but really rocks with the fresh ricotta from (all together now)...FAIRWAY! And you can also get pretty decent fresh ricotta at Whole Foods (but no Pringles), and I have also been able to get my mom to actually make me fresh ricotta, because she is a culinary marvel and she loves me. But this particular recipe had Fairway ricotta in it (and Fairway snow peas), and the first tarragon of the season from my herb garden. It's a speedy little recipe, and we love it. Here you go.

TWO-PEA PASTA WITH RICOTTA AND TARRAGON

Serves 4

• 12 ounces short pasta of your choice (gemelli, penne, etc)
• 12 ounces sugar snap peas, stem ends removed
• 1 10 oz package frozen peas
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
• 1 cup ricotta cheese

1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta 3 minutes less than cooking time called for on package. Add snap peas to pot, cook all for 2 more minutes. Add frozen peas and cook one minute more. Scoop 1/2 cup pasta water from pot and then drain pasta and veggies. Return all to pot.

2. Toss pasta and veggies with butter, tarragon and ricotta, adding a little pasta water to create a thin sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Divide pasta among plates. At this point you can grate on a little Parmesan cheese if you are feeling adventurous. (And guess where you can buy fabulous blocks of Parmesan? I won't say it).

If anyone has favorite items that they like to get at Fairway, please tell me! One day I will bring my camera to Fairway to document my love and devotion.

Note: all pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.