So here’s how my Skype conversation with my dad went the other week.
Dad: “Is your cooking getting any better?”
Me: “I made chocolate chip pancakes with Aunt Jemima mix for dinner.”
Dad: “So, no.”
Me: “I need to make your lemon ricotta pancakes one of these days.”
Dad: “Did you know ricotta is the cheese of 2017?”
I kid you not, those words came out of his mouth — and he wasn’t joking. Ricotta has apparently been named the cheese of 2017. Even though I can't find the article my dad was citing for the life of me, I've decided that I shall declare it the cheese of the year.
I think the celebration of cheese is absolutely justified, and what better way to celebrate than to eat? The answer is nothing. Eating solves all of life’s problems. Specifically, these lemon ricotta pancakes solve all of life’s problems.
I know it sounds like a weird combination, but it is actually becoming one of the most popular brunch foods — Vancouverites rejoice! So why not give it a shot? If you’re too lazy to cook this because it is a tad labour intensive, just Google “lemon ricotta pancakes in Vancouver” and find the best around the city. But I promise you that homemade is always better. Check out this recipe from Brunch by Marc Meyer and Peter Meehan:
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of ricotta
- 4 large eggs, separated
- Grazed zest of 1 lemon
- Pinch of salt
- Dash of vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter
Directions:
- Beat ricotta and egg yolks together in a large mixing bowl with lemon zest, salt, vanilla and sugar. Stir in flour and 7 tablespoons of the melted butter, working batter until homogeneous and smooth.
- Whip egg whites with a whisk until they hold a stiff peak. With a rubber spatula, gingerly fold half of the whites into batter, then fold in the remaining half.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat for two minutes, and then grease the pan with a teaspoon or more of the remaining butter. When the butter starts to sizzle, turn the heat up a touch and ladle in 3 ½ to 4-inch pancakes.
- After a couple of minutes, when the bottoms of the pancakes are somewhere between mottled and uniformly brown, flip and cook another two minutes.
- Serve pancakes on warmed plates with warmed maple syrup on side.