Lemon Sage Ricotta Dumplings

Who wants a creepy story just in time for Halloween season?

It's really more a tale of an at-home Fear Factor reenactment but in any case, let me make these dumplings a PSA for proper flour storage:

Store your flour in sealed containers, please, not the box or bag in came in, ok?

This was a lesson I thought I had learned during the great pantry moth infestation of ’09 and the pantry invasion of “tiny things with legs” of ’10. Apparently not.

I had one box of cake flour in my pantry, a.k.a. my hall closet, and in my first attempt at these dumplings, I thought I would try cake flour for a lighter texture (or because I was also out of regular flour). Whether the cake flour achieved the desired lighter result I’ll never know, because just before taking my first bite I realized the dark flecks in the remaining flour in the bag seemed to be moving. 

Cue fork clattering to the ground.

I was on the phone with my mother at the time, who seemed unreasonably calm about my consuming mystery bugs, so I did a hasty google search which told me that these creepy crawlies were probably weevils, and that since they were living in flour that had been sold in a sealed plastic bag, they likely originated at the processing source, not my closet (but even so my improper storage could have led to them infesting other dry goods!). It also assured me I wouldn’t die from eating them, but I couldn’t stomach it and so there went a ton of ricotta and butter into the trash, along with the rest of the flour.

Please don't ever sign me up for that Fear Factor show at Universal Studios.

Calmer, and after purchasing brand new flour, I tried again, and I'm glad I did because these cheesy delights are worth the effort, which is actually pretty minimal. Along with the previously mentioned flour, you combine ricotta, parmesan, an egg, and flavorful mix-ins to form a dough that you then plop into simmering water before turning golden in a tanning bed of brown butter and sage.

Hello, Autumn.

I’m not actually advocating for cake flour in these, since I tested a different recipe in round 2 and my freshly purchased AP flour worked out just fine. I am however, going to advocate for a high-quality ricotta that you promise me to drain if it seems overly wet or loose. These dumplings are 90% ricotta so we want it to taste amazing, and we don't want any extra moisture in the dough causing a total structural collapse during simmering. 

In the end, you end up with creamy, pillowy dumplings that taste like slightly firmed up insides of ravioli, dressed in butter and crispy sage. It's straight cozy, cheesy, Fall delight.

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Lemon & Sage Ricotta Dumplings

Dough adapted from Food & Wine

• 8 oz whole milk ricotta, drained if needed
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
• fresh ground black pepper
• good pinch of kosher salt
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbs minced sage
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 tbs unsalted butter
• 10 sage leaves

1. Bring a large pot of salt water to a low simmer.  In a large bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, parmesan, pepper, salt, lemon zest, lemon juice and sage and stir well to combine. Add the flour and stir in until combined.
2. Drop mixture by 2 oz scoops into the simmering water. Cook 10-12 minutes, until dumplings begin to float to the top. 
3. While dumplings are simmering, melt butter in a large, non-stick skillet until foaming. Add the sage leaves and cook until crispy and butter is browned. Using a slotted spoon or spider, transfer the dumplings from the simmering water to the browned butter. Using a spoon, gently brown the dumplings in the butter until golden. Transfer to a dish and serve hot with a little extra parmesan and lemon zest, if desired.

Cannoli Pancakes

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had Monday off and a nice long weekend to enjoy. If not, so sorry.

After spending my real weekend on blog and podcast things it was nice to steal a little time back from the regular work week. My day started of well, optimistic and full of carbs, with plans only to lazily build a tiny cake and make my way through my DVR. However, between the smoke in the air from the Napa fires and a 5 pm earthquake, it did start to feel a little apocalyptic by the end (that could just be all the Buffy I've been watching*). But before all of the world-ending portents I had leftovers of these pancakes for breakfast, these wonderful, chocolate and mascarpone-filled beauties that I really had to force myself to stop eating. 

That's the problem with cooking sometimes, the way you can disguise ingredients. I would never eat half a container of mascarpone in one sitting, but that's exactly the amount of mascarpone I ate for breakfast yesterday, because it was shoved into a jacket of eggs and flour and butter and dotted with mini chocolate morsels.

Hi, this is why I do cardio.

But really, these fragile, soft-centered pancakes are that good. They are like your favorite chocolate-chip pancakes from childhood, but with tangy mascarpone that leaves the centers a bit soft and creamy and combines with the chocolate into a flavor profile not unlike my favorite treats from Mike's Pastry. It's not exactly a cannoli, but if you can't get to Boston, they are pretty darn close.

*Or maybe the gut-wrenching news of all the communities and vineyards absolutely decimated just across the Bay. Or the Las Vegas shooting. Or Puerto Rico. Or Texas. Or North Korea. Honestly the news feels so generally apocalyptic these days that sometimes it seems like the only thing to do is make Buffy jokes and keep cooking, if only to keep the soul-crushingness of it all at bay.

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Cannoli Pancakes

• 8 oz mascarpone
• 2 eggs
• splash of vanilla
• dash of cinnamon
• 1 tbs sugar
• 3 tbs flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• good pinch salt
• 3/8 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Whisk mascarpone, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and sugar together. Add in flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine. Fold in chocolate chips.
2. Heat a griddle over medium heat and melt a little butter on the hot surface. Pour batter by 1/4 cups onto hot griddle. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface then gently flip and cook other side 2-3 minutes more (pancakes are very delicate). 
3. Serve hot, with a dustin of powdered sugar if you like, though these are so loaded with chocolate you probably won't need syrup.

Ted's Mini Pizzas

Xander: Can I just say, this is the finest pizza ever on God's 
green Earth. What is your secret?

Ted: Well, after you bake it, you fry it in herbs and olive oil, but 
you gotta use a cast-iron skillet. No room for compromise there.

Xander: Y'know, you should market these things. I mean, you can get 
two, three hundred bucks apiece!

Can I just say, amen? 

If you've seen the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that the above exchange comes from, then you know Ted turns out to actually be an evil robot with a habit of killing his wives and drugging his girlfriend's family and friends with ecstasy-infused chocolate chip cookies. 

But boy oh boy, can he cook!

Before the discovery of Ted's non-human status and subsequent slayage, we get a charming little scene where Ted (played by the great John Ritter as both funny and mildly menacing), explains his pizza-making process to Xander and Willow. It sounds so fantastic I always catch my mouth watering a bit, even though I've seen the episode countless times and I know what's hidden in Ted's closet. I obviously dislike Ted and his creepy misogyny, but I have to confess I've always wanted to eat his mini pizzas. 

And now we all can! 

These pizzas are shockingly simple to make, even with the added step of frying after baking. If you use store-bought dough and pre-shredded cheese, they are even easier. The only place I think you really shouldn't skimp is on the herbs. Fresh is best here, to really infuse the olive oil and lend flavor to the crusts. I also added garlic to the aromatics to ward off any vampires, but you could of course leave that out if you want to be faithful to Ted's original recipe. 

And don't forget the cast iron pan! There really is no room for compromise here. You want to have a heavy-bottomed skillet to evenly heat the oil so you get a nice, crispy crust on the bottom of these pizzas, and you know, it might come in handy when your Mom's dead ex-boyfriend reboots and attacks you in your kitchen.

That last part probably won't happen but a slayer can never be too prepared.

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Mini Fried Cheese Pizzas

• one batch of your favorite pizza dough
• 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I used a mix of mozzarella, asiago, and provolone)
• extra virgin olive oil
• a handful of fresh herbs, chopped (rosemary, oregano, sage, thyme, etc)
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• basil, chiffonaded, for garnish (optional)

1. Heat your oven to its highest temperature and line two baking sheets with parchment. Divide your dough into 8 equal pieces and roll out into thin rounds. Place 4 rounds on each baking sheet. 
2. Mix crushed tomatoes with the salt and puree in a blender, then spread over the dough. Top with 1/8 cup cheese on each and bake 10-12 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly and dough is puffed and cooked through. 
3. While pizzas are baking, heat a bit of olive oil in a cast iron pan over medium-low heat, enough to cover the bottom of the skillet. Add the herbs and garlic and let infuse the oil. Lower the heat if the herbs and garlic start to burn. 
4. After the pizzas are done baking, raise the temperature under the skillet to medium. Fry the pizzas in the oil until bottoms are darkly golden, then drain on paper towels, garnish with basil if using, and serve hot.