A new entrant into the pancake oeuvre, this one from Lidia who's zucchini cake impressed me so much. While this pancake uses no sugar at all, making them is more like baking than cooking anyhow, so I don't feel too bad about featuring them in my blog. Also, my roomie tried to make these once and they didn't turn out so well so she asked me to try and see if I could get them to turn out any better.

Fluffy Ricotta Pancakes
From Lidia's Italian Table by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich

• 1 cup milk
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 pinches of salt
• grated zest of 2 lemons
• 2 cups ricotta

Directions:

• In a large bowl beat the milk, egg yolks, flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest together until well blended.
• Add the ricotta and blend gently, leaving some of the curds whole.
• In a medium mixing bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer at high speed until they hold stiff peaks when the beaters are lifted.
• Add about 1/4 of the whites to the ricotta mixture and, with a rubber spatula, gently fold them in, scraping the ricotta mixture from the bottom of the bowl over the whites.
• Fold in the remaining whites the same way.
• Grease a griddle and heat it over medium-high until a drop of water dances quickly across the surface.
• Pour the batter by quarter cupfuls onto the griddle and cook until the underside is a lacy golden brown, about 2 minutes.
• Flip the pancakes and cook until the second side is light brown, about 1 minute.

About this recipe: while typing out the list of ingredients I just realized that I also screwed up making these pancakes. I used baking soda, not baking powder...no wonder. I was going to cross out the "fluffy" part of the title because these were far from fluffy and I thought surely that these pancakes were where the phrase, "flat as a pancake" had originated. Well, strike two for ricotta pancakes. Now I'll have to try them again.

In any case, I'm certain I can speak to the method and the over all taste, despite my mistake. When my roomie made these pancakes she misread the directions and made them entirely using an electric mixer. You definitely don't want to do that. This batter is too fragile for a mixer. Use a wire whisk for the first step and a rubber spatula for the remaining steps. Of course you will need to use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites unless you are one of those crazy people who know how and can do this by hand.

I find Lidia's instructions to be very complete and perfect for someone who's never made pancakes in their life. For those of us who have, it's a bit of an overkill, but nonetheless, I enjoyed her thoroughness.

These pancakes are to be served with 1 pint (a.k.a. 2 cups) fresh sliced strawberries that have been marinated in 1/4 cup of honey. I didn't do this and you don't have to either, however, since these pancakes aren't sweet in and of themselves, you will definitely want to serve them with syrup or some confectioners sugar dusted over the top.

Since you already know that my pancakes turned out flat, let me jump right in to the flavor and consistency. The ricotta is the main ingredient so therefore the texture is dominated by the not-quite-smooth cheese that makes these pancakes more moist, creamy, and crepe-like than pancake-like. I found them to be very eggy, but not so much that it ruins the flavor. The lemon zest is subdued and not that noticeable but it certainly lightens the flavor of the ricotta cheese.

Overall, while I liked these pancakes more than I expected, I find it difficult to justify the expense of making them. The pint of ricotta cheese that I bought was just over $5 which means that 1 batch of these pancakes will run you in the $6 or $7 range, and possibly more if you use the strawberries. While I'm not what you would call a penny-pincher, I find this excessive for a Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast. In any case, I saved some pennies because I halved the recipe for this morning's batch so I have enough ricotta left over to try it again.