homemade ricotta

dolce di ricotta e avena / dessert of ricotta and oats

| Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

dessert of ricotta and oat groats

One of the beauties of belonging to a CSA is that you often get nudged into uncharted territory. I am a member of two CSAs: one of them, Shakefork Community Farm, is a grain CSA. Together with my share of whole and milled grains, every month I get recipes and other suggestions for use. One day, I received instructions on how to toast hulless barley prior to boiling. When I found hulless oats in my share (we usually get cracked oats, so this was an interesting surprise), I decided to apply the same process. During the toasting process, the groats pop and sometimes jump: this is one of the most entertaining things you can do in the kitchen.

IMGP5352

Oat field in early spring

The dessert which is the subject of this post was inspired in part by my experiments with pastiera and in part by the grano dolce di Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy’s sweet wheat), a dolce al cucchiaio (spoon dessert) traditionally made on December 13th, whose main ingredients, as in the pastiera, are grano cotto (cooked wheat kernels) and ricotta. I have made my dolce di ricotta several times, using grano cotto, cooked hulless barley and finally cooked oats. The latter have un certo non so che (a je ne sais quoi), which makes them my favorite choice in this context.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup hulless oats
  • 2 cups water
  • 9 1/2 ounces fresh ricotta
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar, or to taste (see below)
  • 1 ounce good quality extra dark chocolate (at least 70% cacao)
  • 1 ounce candied orange and citron peel
  • grated chocolate (topping)

I rinse well half a cup of hulless oats and spread them in an already warm, dry frying pan. I keep the pan over medium heat. First the oats dry, then start to pop. I shake the pan almost constantly to prevent the oats from burning. After a few minutes, the popping subsides and I take the pan off the heat, still shaking it for a few more seconds. In the photo below, you can see hulless oats before (left) and after (right) toasting.

DSC_0006

I place the toasted oats in a saucepan together with two cups of water, bring to a boil and cook, covered, until soft (but not mushy), about one hour. I let the oats cool briefly, then drain it and weigh half for use in my dolce di ricotta. (The other half, topped with blueberries, contributes to my husband’s breakfast.)

As previously recounted, I make ricotta at home the way it is traditionally made in Italy, using the whey (siero di latte) left over from the process of making hard cheese. The photo shows a particularly good batch I made with the whey left over from making Gouda, a washed-curd cheese, which I used, for example, in my gougères al gouda.

homemade ricotta

I usually make my dolce di ricotta the morning after I make ricotta. After draining the little bit of whey at the bottom of the bowl, I take about 9.5 oz. of ricotta, which I sweeten with vanilla sugar. I mix well with a fork (this also mashes the ricotta into a cream) and let rest in the fridge. A note on sweetener: I like my ricotta lightly sweetened, its delicate flavor enhanced, not overwhelmed. You can use sugar or other sweeteners here and let yourself be guided by your taste buds. I tend to be conservative in this step, because later I am adding two ingredients that both contribute sugar to the mix.

With a knife, I finely chop 1 oz. of good quality extra dark chocolate (at least 70% cacao): more precisely, I use a knife to shave the chocolate. I then finely dice 1 oz. of candied orange and citron peel. For a while, I used purchased candied peel, then made my own using orange, lime, Meyer lemon and citron, and so recently, I have used some of my own production. A very nice description of how to make candied orange peel (scorze d’arancia candite) is here. (I blanch the peel four times.)

candied orange peel

I first add the candied peel to the ricotta, and mix well with a fork. After a brief resting period, I add the chocolate and again mix well. Finally, I add the cool cooked oats, mix and then refrigerate thoroughly. To serve, I usually divide the ricotta into small ramekins or, like in the photo below, crème brûlée molds. A tasting before dividing the dolce di ricotta into portions will inform you whether a bit more sweetener is needed to please your palate. I decorate each portion with a layer of grated chocolate and refrigerate until close to serving time. I take the dolce out of the fridge a little bit before serving it, so it is not too cold.

The version in the top photo can be described as a deconstructed pastiera, since the cat-shaped cookie is made with pasta frolla, (or pastafrolla, sweet shortcrust pastry) like the crust of the pastiera.

Whb228 This is my contribution to edition #228 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen, now administered by Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once and hosted this week by Prof. Kitty from The Cabinet of Prof. Kitty.

On this page you will find the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post: 

dolce di ricotta e avena

or launch the dolce di ricotta e avena  audio file [mp3].

[jump to Comments]

Newrule

dolce di ricotta e avena

DSC_0020

L’ispirazione per il dessert che preparo con la mia ricotta fatta in casa e l’avena integrale viene in parte dai miei esperimenti con la pastiera e in parte dalla ricetta per il grano dolce di Santa Lucia nel libro La Grande Cucina Siciliana di Fiammetta di Napoli Oliver. Entrambe le ricette prevedono l’uso di ricotta e di grano cotto. Ho preparato il mio dolce di ricotta diverse volte col grano cotto, poi con orzo integrale e infine con avena integrale. Quest’ultima ha un certo non so che che la rende la mia scelta preferita in questa ricetta.

Lo scorso inverno, grazie alla mia CSA di cereali (community-supported agriculture: vedi il post che ho scritto per francescav), ho imparato a tostare l’orzo integrale prima di cuocerlo (e senza metterlo a bagno prima) e ho applicato lo stesso processo all’avena integrale che ho ricevuto come compartecipazione.

Ingredienti:

  • 75 g avena integrale
  • 1/2 l acqua
  • 270 g ricotta fresca
  • 25 g zucchero aromatizzato alla vaniglia, o a seconda del gusto (vedi sotto)
  • 30 g cioccolato di ottima qualità e contenuto di cacao minimo 70%,
  • 30 g scorze candite di arancia e di cedro
  • cioccolato grattugiato (per decorare la superficie)

Sciacquo bene 75 g di avena integrale e li verso in una padella già calda, non oliata. Mantengo il calore medio-basso e muovo la padella per evitare che l’avena bruci. Prima i chicchi si asciugano, poi cominciamo a scoppiettare. Dopo qualche minuto, lo scoppiettio diminuisce e tiro via la padella dal fuoco, sempre muovendola per qualche altro secondo. Nella foto potete vedere l’avena prima (a sinistra) e dopo (a destra) la tostatura.

DSC_0006

Metto l’avena in una pentola con mezzo litro d’acqua e la porto a bollore, poi la cuocio, a pentola coperta, fino a che è tenera (ma non disfatta), circa un’ora. Una volta cotta, faccio intiepidire l’avena poi la scolo e ne peso la metà da usare per la ricotta dolce. (L’altra metà ci fa colazione mio marito, dopo averci aggiunto una buona dose di mirtilli.)

Come ho scritto in passato, faccio il formaggio da stagionare e faccio la ricotta col siero che ottengo come sottoprodotto. Non ho accesso a latte di pecora, quindi la ricotta che faccio è vaccina, alle volte mista, quando uso del latte di capra nel fare il formaggio. La foto mostra della ricotta particolarmente buona che ho fatto col siero ottenuto dalla produzione di gouda.

DSC_0077-1

Di solito preparo il dolce di ricotta la mattina dopo aver fatto la ricotta. Dopo aver drenato la piccola quantità di siero che si raccoglie sul fondo del contenitore, peso 270 g di ricotta e la addolcisco con zucchero aromatizzato alla vaniglia (cioè zucchero nel quale tengo baccelli di vaniglia nuovi o usati). Potete usare anche altri tipi di dolcificante. Di zucchero ne uso poco, poiché poi aggiungo altri due ingredienti che contribuiscono a dolcificare il composto. Mescolo bene con una forchetta e allo stesso tempo schiaccio la ricotta per ridurla ad una crema, poi la rimetto in frigo.

Con un coltello riduco a scaglie 30 g di cioccolato di ottima qualità e contenuto di cacao almeno del 70%, poi taglio a dadini 30 g di scorze candite di arancia e di cedro. Quelle nella foto le ho fatte io, ispirata dalle scorze di bergamotto candite di Lenny.

DSC_0019

Aggiungo i dadini di scorze candite alla ricotta e mescolo bene con la forchetta. Dopo un breve periodo di riposo, aggiungo il cioccolato e mescolo di nuovo. Infine, aggiungo l’avena tiepida e poi raffreddo bene il composto. Divido la ricotta in coppette o stampini da crème brûlée (come nella foto), ottenendo porzioni che decoro con un leggero strato di cioccolato grattugiato. Un assaggio prima di mettere la ricotta nelle coppette vi dirà se c’è bisogno di un po’ più di dolcificante.

Tengo la ricotta in frigorifero fino a poco prima di servirla, quando la tiro fuori cosicché non è troppo fredda. Che ne dite del gatto di pasta frolla?

 

cannolo

| Simona

DSC_0010

Group_w180x130The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, cannolo (cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

In a previous post, I have briefly told the story of how I chanced to eat my first cannolo siciliano. Were it not for Daring Bakers, I don’t think I would have tried to make this kind of cannoli at home. I know what a cannolo tastes like and knew from the beginning that I would not be able to come close to my memories, the best one being of eating countless miniature cannoli, where the ricotta filling was delicate, without candied fruit, the flavor of ricotta heavenly1. That was a long time ago, during my first visit to Sicily.

What I was not prepared for was disaster, in the form of my thermometer sliding into the 375 F-oil, which required the disposal of all of the oil as contaminated material. I am a notorious destroyer of thermometers. The one that ended up in the oil was a candy thermometer that I had broken open at the top. It still worked, except that when it slid into the pan, the hot oil penetrated inside and melted the measuring core. I decided not to give up: I went to the grocery store and got a new bottle of oil and a new thermometer.

DSC_0005 In the meantime, the dough and I were not getting along. It was easy to roll and cut, but each piece sprang back to pre-rolled dimensions as soon as I let go of it. That was a problem, because I needed to shape the cannoli. I managed to get a couple of cannoli that reached the frying stage in decent shape. Frying (friggere) was not plain sailing either: before one minute was over, my first cannolo was burnt (leftmost in the photo). By reaction, the second cannolo ended up on the other side of the spectrum, called undercooked, and it puffed up beyond belief, because the dough was too thick, due to problem #1, about the dough, explained about (center in the photo).

DSC_0009I decided I would give it one more try. I shaped and fried an acceptable (give my lowered expectations) cannolo, filled it with my ricotta cream (more on this shortly), took a photo and served it to my husband. “The filling is good.” What a sweet quality assurance professional he is! Of course, the filling was good: the homemade ricotta was freshly made (with milk as main ingredient, according to a recipe in the book The Home Creamery by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley, as mentioned in this post) and the candied orange peel was also of my own making, plus I used very good dark chocolate.

It was clear that the dough and I were not meant for each other. It was a sad farewell, because I didn’t know what had not worked between us. Still disappointed by the unhappy ending of my adventure, I thought: “maybe this is a good time to try and make the other cannoli.” Also called cannoncini (literally, small cannons), they are composed of a puff pastry shell filled with pastry or whipped cream, or variations thereof. I had my own puff pastry in the freezer, so it was easy to act upon my idea. I thawed a piece of the batch and implemented plan B. I cut a 12-inch long and 1-inch wide strip and rolled it around an oiled cannolo form, baked it at 375 F until golden, let cool, slid off the form and filled it with ricotta. I called it fusion dessert: cannolo siciliano filling in a cannolo shell. My husband smiled. He was not ecstatic, but happier than during the previous tasting.

I then made a couple of shells more in the cannolo siciliano shape, cutting a rectangle and uniting two opposing corners to close the loop. Finally, I made a few circles and prepared a sort of millefoglie. I split the baked circles in half to obtain six thinner circles and made two millefoglie out of three layers each, with some ricotta cream spread in between each layer. I know, it was a digression, but at least I can say that overall the exploration was not a total disaster.

You will find the recipe for the dough here. The recipe for puff pastry used in a previous edition of Daring Bakers is here. The recipe I used to make ricotta is described at the end of this post: it uses cultured buttermilk to acidify the milk and I used low-fat milk in it. This is not traditional ricotta, but I did not have time to make cheese before making cannoli to have the whey to make traditional ricotta. I drained the ricotta for two hours, then placed it in a bowl lined with some cloth to obtain a drier than usual consistency. The candied orange peel I made is not ready for prime time, so I defer discussion to a future post.

For the ricotta filling, I loosely followed the recipe here. I had 9.5 oz. of ricotta and sweetened it with 1 oz. of vanilla powdered sugar (zucchero vanigliato) and a tablespoon of agave nectar. I then added a scant tablespoon of candied orange peel, diced, and a tablespoon of finely chopped dark chocolate. I also added a dash of orange blossom water. I mixed all the ingredients well with a fork to achieve a creamy texture.

A special thank you goes to our host for her choice and her efforts. Regardless of the bumps on the road, it was a valuable learning experience. I hope you will take the time to go around and look at the gorgeous creations of my talented fellow Daring Bakers.

1 As Baol reminded me in his comment below, the ricotta traditionally used to fill cannoli is ricotta di pecora, i.e., ricotta made with, as main ingredient, the whey derived from the production of sheep milk’s cheese.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post: 

cannolo

or launch the cannolo  audio file [mp3].

 

gnocchi di ricotta / ricotta gnocchi

| Simona

Update: click here to go to a more detailed post on making gnocchi di ricotta

ricotta gnocchi

Group_w180x130For the first Daring Cooks challenge, esteemed founders Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, of Daring Bakers’ fame, have chosen Ricotta Gnocchi, a recipe from The Zuni Café Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. I have had the good fortune of eating at Zuni Café (in San Francisco) a couple of times and have good memories of those occasions. Thanks to our gracious hosts for a great challenge.

I am thrilled to be part of this new enterprise by Lis and Ivonne, which, if history is any guide, will be wildly successful. Last, but not least, I could not miss a chance to use my homemade ricotta (ricotta fatta in casa). You will find the recipe chosen for this challenge here. A while ago I wrote a post on gnocchi, where I mentioned gnocchi di ricotta: it is about time I made some.

drained ricotta

Having just come back from a week vacation and being a bit behind on several fronts prevented me from making cheese and from then making my preferred ricotta using the leftover whey as main ingredient. So, for the task at hand, I used a recipe I had tried in the past, as recounted here, from the book The Home Creamery by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley. From one quart of milk (I used 1% fat this time) and one cup of cultured buttermilk I obtained 9 oz. of ricotta, enough to make half the given recipe, or gnocchi per due (for two). I drained the ricotta for two hours the day I made it, then the morning after I placed it on a piece of cotton cloth a few hours before using it for the task at hand.

To flavor my gnocchi I used a hint of grated lemon zest and a hint of nutmeg (noce moscata). For the sauce, I let the farmers’ market decide. This time of the year, each week brings new products to the tables. When I visited it, the first zucchini were available and, with them, the first zucchini blossoms (fiori di zucca): I yielded to the temptation of splurging on a nice bouquet of them to be used promptly. While the gnocchi were resting in the fridge, according to the recipe, I cooked a thinly sliced leek in a pan with olive oil and the leaves of two sprigs of thyme (timo) until quite soft (adding some water, as needed, to keep the leek moist), then added nine zucchini blossoms, washed, stem and stamen removed (they were all male) and cut lengthwise into 4-5 pieces. I let them cook for a couple of minutes, then set aside the pan, covered.

I cooked the gnocchi as directed, 8 at a time (I had 24 total, so I made three batches), keeping the cooked gnocchi in a covered bowl until they were all ready. While the last batch was cooking, I added a tablespoon of the cooking water to 1 oz of ricotta that was left over from what I had made and mixed it into a creamy paste, then added it to the leek and zucchini blossom mixture. I adjusted salt and pepper and then added this to the cooked gnocchi.

ricotta gnocchi

The whole enterprise was a lot of fun and a resounding success. While my dish met unqualified approval from the quality assurance department of our household (a.k.a. my husband), my photos of the dish were almost all unfit for showing and hence were deleted. You can barely see what my gnocchi looked like, but you’ll have plenty of opportunity to admire the beautiful creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. I will definitely make gnocchi di ricotta again soon. 

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post: 

gnocchi di ricotta

or launch the gnocchi di ricotta  audio file [mp3].

 

formaggio e ricotta / cheese and ricotta

| Simona

ricotta

For several years and until recently, my usual contribution to a dinner at friends’ houses has been gelato or sorbetto. Vanessa of Italy in SF has just published a very informative post on gelato and ice cream. I don’t know the fat content and percent of air of my products, though I know that when I adapt a recipe I usually decrease the amount of fat. 

Cheese making has changed this custom. Now, I often bring a piece of my homemade cheese to share. For example, to this birthday party, I brought some Manchego that I had made in early March. After reading of Nocciola (which means hazelnut in Italian), a goat cheese made in Oregon by Tumalo Farms that includes pieces of hazelnuts, I decided to do something similar.

hazelnut manchego

I made Manchego, as always according to the recipe in the book Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll (which uses cow milk) and added to the curds, as I was putting them into the press, some toasted chopped hazelnuts (I used a mortar and pestle to break the whole toasted hazelnuts into small pieces). I let the cheese age for 40 days. I like the result, which is interesting both to look at (photo on the left) and to taste.

I have also tried adding caraway seeds to Monterey Jack cheese. This is still in the aging phase, so I don’t yet know how the experiment turned out.

Besides adding variations to recipes I am already familiar with, I am trying new recipes from my guide book. The most recent new cheese I made is Derby, for which an interesting technique is used to process the curds after heating and before pressing.

I also continue making ricotta using whey (siero di latte) as the main ingredient. With the whey left over from making Derby I made ricotta according to what I called recipe #2 in this post. It coagulated nicely and was easier to drain than in previous occasions. I then used the output to make pane alla ricotta. This time I did not halve the quantities and therefore made two loaves, one of which I froze for later consumption.

In the area of ricotta-making I have recently realized that I need to start measuring the whey’s pH. According one of the recipes I follow: “If too much acid is added, the curds will sink to the bottom and the cheese will not be sweet.” For the most recent batch of ricotta I made (using acidified whey), the curds did not sink to the bottom of the pot, but the result was rather bland in flavor. I need to be more conscientious about taking notes of what I do and about measuring the pH. I take all that happens as part of my learning curve: I still enjoy the process and the results.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post: 

formaggio e ricotta

or launch the formaggio e ricotta  audio file [mp3].