Ricotta tart for Easter

Recipes seem to be slipping away from me this week: first, cheese gougères, and just now the ricotta tart I love to make for Easter. I referred to it in this blog on an earlier Easter -- but that time I just gave a link to the New York Times, where my recipe originated. I clicked, but it took awhile for the recipe to pop up, so I wondered if there's a shelf-life to old NYT recipes. Luckily, this one is still alive online. But I copied it just in case, and here it is. I'm also going to print it out. 

I make half this recipe, for one cheesecake. I'm going to make ours on Saturday.

RICOTTA TART

Adapted from Pepolino restaurant

Time: 2 1/2 hours plus cooling

1 3/4 cups sugar

11 ounces (2 3/4 sticks) slightly softened unsalted butter, in pieces

2 egg yolks

4 cups cake flour, approximately

2 1/2 pounds ricotta cheese

5 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups heavy cream

Confectioners' sugar.

1. Combine 3/4 cup sugar, the butter and egg yolks in a food processor or a large mixing bowl. Process or beat until smooth. Add flour about 1 cup at a time, pulsing until blended if using a food processor, or mixing by hand until a soft, smooth dough can be gathered in a ball. Divide in two, flatten each portion into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 40 minutes.

2. Heat oven to 500 degrees. Roll out one disk on a lightly floured board to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Fit dough into a 9-inch springform pan or a 9-inch round cake pan 1 1/2 inches deep with a removable bottom. In springform pan, dough should come up 2 inches on sides; with cake pan, dough should be even with top edge. Repeat with second pan. If you do not have two pans, second tart can be made after first has finished baking.

3. In a large bowl or in an electric mixer on low speed, beat together ricotta, remaining sugar, whole eggs, vanilla and cream until well blended and smooth. Ladle filling into prepared pans.

4. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees and continue baking for one hour and 10 minutes, until top is puffed and golden -- some cracking is to be expected -- and a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Transfer to a rack and cool 10 minutes. Remove outer ring from pan and cool tart to room temperature. Filling will sink as it cools. Tart can be refrigerated. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

Yield: 2 tarts, 16 servings.

Popovers from the past

Yesterday's anticipation of Cheese Gougères has led to today's recipe for good old popovers. Here, Mary, as you requested, is Mom's recipe. I remember them filled with melting butter (Please don't remind me that it was really margarine!) and homemade strawberry jam.

Mom's Popovers

Sift:
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Beat:
3 eggs

Add:
1 1/2 C. milk

Stir eggs and milk into the flour mixture.
Beat thoroughly.

Fill muffin pans 2/3 full. (Recipe doesn't say anything about greasing them, and I can't remember ... but can't hurt to grease the pans.)

Bake at 450° for 15 minutes, then at 350° for 20 minutes more.  I can't really make out that last number. My recipe card is tattered and ripped there. It looks very much like a 20, but it could be 30. Check after 20.

This is even quicker than gougères. Send photos!

When it's in a frame it's art ... Do you agree?

The people at Sacred Threads led me to this video hinting at the healing power of quilts. I love the beautiful art, yes, but ... OK, I am warped ... what really catches my eye is the way they are displayed. In frames. And I've got to watch it again, but I think I saw a glint: they're glassed in!

I love the tactile quality of quilts. I think it is part of their power. You do not se El Anatsui's massive textural pieces under glass, and quilts shouldn't be trapped by glass either.

I like to consider ways to display quilts. I suppose it's a phase and will pass; I will settle on one or two ideal for me. Frames are great. It's the glass I hate.

Gougères du Soleil

Dear Mary,

Right after you texted for my recipe for Gruyère popovers I panicked. Haven't made them in so long ... where is that recipe?? I recently gave away some old cookbooks -- those I thought had not a single good recipe. Maybe I gave that great recipe away!! At first I couldn't find it, and I called Patrice, at all three numbers, but no answer. 

Then I did find it, because I would never give away my Classic Cuisine of Provence by Diane Holuigue. 

I know you're in a hurry. Here it is. (And will you text me a photo of the finished puffs so I can use it here? ) OK, OK, here's the recipe:

Gougères du Soleil

Pastry

1 C. cold water

pinch salt

5 T. butter, diced

1 1/4 C. flour

4 small eggs

Filling

1/3 C Gruyère cheese

salt

pepper

And these ingredients, which I don't add:

10 anchovy fillets, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

10 black olives, pitted and diced

4 sun-dried tomatoes,diced

The choux pastry: Place cold water in a saucepan with the salt and butter. Bring to the boil, stirring to make sure the butter melts completely by the time the water boils. (Further boiling evaporates the water, so just bring it to the boiling point.)

Remove from heat and add the flour, all at once. Stir well, with wooden spatula, then return to stove for the count of 20, or until the mixture rolls off the sides of the saucepan and clings in a ball to the spatula. Remove from heat again. Add the eggs, two at a time, stirring in completely each time. 

Fold the filling ingredients into the pastry. When Patrice and I would make these for Christmas Eve,  we might have added more cheese, but be careful. 

Spoon into small balls on a lightly greased baking sheet, well-spaced to allow for swelling. We used to make then into a circle like a wreath -- with a little space between them. Then you can pull them apart. 

Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes, reducing heat if they brown too early. Remove when golden brown. Best served immediately out of the oven.

They'll go fast, so don't forget to photo them quick!