It’s always difficult to cook in someone else’s kitchen, isn’t it? This week I’m visiting my mom in western Pennsylvania, and the woman has one heckuva stocked kitchen…but no food processor and no tart pan. But that would never stop an intrepid Tuesday With Dorie baker, right? First I had to track down the recipe, because I traveled without and the TWD site has wisely chosen NOT to publish recipes anymore. Kudos to LW, the TWD leader, for making the right choice, letting Dorie protect her copyright. There were no hard feelings (Dorie is one gem of a lady.)

She also keeps the freezer compartment of her fridge at industrial strength temperatures–Absoulte Zero, if I’m not mistaken–so boy did she EVER have frozen butter.

I mixed the pastry by hand (hey, they had to do it that way all the time in the good old days) and pressed it into the shallowest pie dish I could find in her house. (While searching I found the BEST copper oval pan that I think I can use for the next Florida Table photo shoot. Do I dare try to take it back on the plane?).
Back into the Arctic temps for 30 minutes, then bake until golden. Cool completely. And if you dont’ have a tart pan? Just pop it out of the pie dish when it’s cool. No big deal..

Part of the beauty of this tart is its simplicity. The shell cools, and you top each portion as it’s served. This is one of the best ways to showcase the fruit of the season.

It’s always difficult to cook in someone else’s kitchen, isn’t it? This week I’m visiting my mom in western Pennsylvania, and the woman has one heckuva stocked kitchen…but no food processor and no tart pan. But that would never stop an intrepid Tuesday With Dorie baker, right? First I had to track down the recipe, because I traveled without and the TWD site has wisely chosen NOT to publish recipes anymore. Kudos to LW, the TWD leader, for making the right choice, letting Dorie protect her copyright. There were no hard feelings (Dorie is one gem of a lady.)

She also keeps the freezer compartment of her fridge at industrial strength temperatures–Absoulte Zero, if I’m not mistaken–so boy did she EVER have frozen butter.

I mixed the pastry by hand (hey, they had to do it that way all the time in the good old days) and pressed it into the shallowest pie dish I could find in her house. (While searching I found the BEST copper oval pan that I think I can use for the next Florida Table photo shoot. Do I dare try to take it back on the plane?).
Back into the Arctic temps for 30 minutes, then bake until golden. Cool completely. And if you dont’ have a tart pan? Just pop it out of the pie dish when it’s cool. No big deal..

Part of the beauty of this tart is its simplicity. The shell cools, and you top each portion as it’s served. This is one of the best ways to showcase the fruit of the season.

So JES, the owner of JES publishing, came by my desk the other day and handed me the NYT section with a piece about fresh ricotta (Suddenly Ricotta’s a Big Cheese, NYT, 28 May 2008). I couldn’t resist it.

Although I had a long day to travel to another client’s place on the west coast of Florida, on my ride back, all I could think about was making fresh ricotta. To the point I called Ian so he could read me then text me the ingredients for the ricotta and for the pasta recipe included in the story (Pasta with Tomato Broth, Bacon, Peas and Ricotta–In fact, that was the day I sent a note about bacon to Twitter).

Fresh ricotta was surprisingly easy with a recipe from Michael Chiarello: –1/2 gallon whole milk mixed with 2 cups buttermilk. Heat over high, stirring, to 175 degrees (stirring until it starts to steam; yes, I use a candy thermometer). Spoon the curds into a cheesecloth (he says ladle; a slotted spoon seemed to make more sense to me…) and let drain first five minutes, gather the cloth up, then let rest another 15 minutes. You get 2 cups of smooth, creamy–and, yes, bland–spread–but it is a fresh addition to other things. (Is it a deal? I dunno. I spent $4 on half a gallon of organic whole milk and another $1.50 (more or less) on the buttermilk. Perhaps not a deal, but very well worth it…) Here is a photo of the end result.

I made the pasta with bacon and peas, as noted. You dollop a nice amount of the fresh, soft ricotta onto the hot pasta, then stir it into the sauce and grate some fresh parm on top. Ian went wild for that pasta…I want to add that the color photo in the NYT makes the peas look more like edamame…and I wish I’d had cavatelli, which is between gnocchi and a pasta.

The other recipe (I’ll have to make more; I gave the remaining ricotta to JES since it was all at his inspiration) in the NYT is for crostini with ricotta, fresh thyme and dried oregano. Okay, guess I’ll have to make some more fresh ricotta.

So JES, the owner of JES publishing, came by my desk the other day and handed me the NYT section with a piece about fresh ricotta (Suddenly Ricotta’s a Big Cheese, NYT, 28 May 2008). I couldn’t resist it.

Although I had a long day to travel to another client’s place on the west coast of Florida, on my ride back, all I could think about was making fresh ricotta. To the point I called Ian so he could read me then text me the ingredients for the ricotta and for the pasta recipe included in the story (Pasta with Tomato Broth, Bacon, Peas and Ricotta–In fact, that was the day I sent a note about bacon to Twitter).

Fresh ricotta was surprisingly easy with a recipe from Michael Chiarello: –1/2 gallon whole milk mixed with 2 cups buttermilk. Heat over high, stirring, to 175 degrees (stirring until it starts to steam; yes, I use a candy thermometer). Spoon the curds into a cheesecloth (he says ladle; a slotted spoon seemed to make more sense to me…) and let drain first five minutes, gather the cloth up, then let rest another 15 minutes. You get 2 cups of smooth, creamy–and, yes, bland–spread–but it is a fresh addition to other things. (Is it a deal? I dunno. I spent $4 on half a gallon of organic whole milk and another $1.50 (more or less) on the buttermilk. Perhaps not a deal, but very well worth it…) Here is a photo of the end result.

I made the pasta with bacon and peas, as noted. You dollop a nice amount of the fresh, soft ricotta onto the hot pasta, then stir it into the sauce and grate some fresh parm on top. Ian went wild for that pasta…I want to add that the color photo in the NYT makes the peas look more like edamame…and I wish I’d had cavatelli, which is between gnocchi and a pasta.

The other recipe (I’ll have to make more; I gave the remaining ricotta to JES since it was all at his inspiration) in the NYT is for crostini with ricotta, fresh thyme and dried oregano. Okay, guess I’ll have to make some more fresh ricotta.