Big City, Little Kitchen

The combination of mild ricotta, slightly tangy apricots, and singular taste of pistachios has been on my mind for awhile; I’d found iterations in several cookbooks, but was on the verge of creating my own, until I came upon this recipe in Chocolate & Zucchini. And so, I got to work, making only tiny alterations: part-skim ricotta instead of whole-milk, omitting orange zest, adding more pistachios to the batter. The end result: exactly what I’d been wanting. Great for breakfast or a mid-afternoon snack, dense-textured, and altogether delicious. Keep it wrapped tightly, and, in my opinion, it only gets better.

• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature, plus extra for greasing the pan
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cup shelled, unsalted pistachios, roasted and chopped
• 5 ripe apricots, halved and pitted

Preheat oven to 350; butter a 9-inch springform pan.

Cream the butter and 1 cup sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, followed by the ricotta and vanilla.

Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder, and add to ricotta mixture, being careful not to overmix. Fold in half of the pistachios and pour batter into pan, using spatula to smooth top. Top with the apricot halves, placing them skin-side down. Sprinkle over the remaining pistachios and 1 tb sugar. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes; cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then run knife along inside of pan to loosen sides, and remove ring.

A note: if wrapping, first fold up in wax paper, followed by foil. If the foil comes into direct contact with the apricots, their acid reacts (somehow) with the aluminum and yields a metallic, unpleasant tang.