2009: Goodbye to All That

And so that was Christmas. Or Christmas Eve, rather. It has always been my favorite holiday. When I was growing up, we celebrated it more elaborately than Christmas Day, with literally dozens of relatives packed around tables, an insane amount of food, and eventually a round of caroling in the neighborhood, with one of the littlest cousins very insistently, but with his or her best smile, holding out the UNICEF collection box.

This year promised to be far more low key, however, and my mother — for the first time ever — agreed to let me host it. The plan was to drive to her house that evening, though, so that on Christmas morning we could all wake up together, so my debut run was with a restrained lunch, not a blowout dinner.

Still, I stuck to the Italian tradition of serving seafood, and started with smoked salmon appetizers before moving on to a first course of cioppino, a simple seafood stew. (I followed this recipe, but added a dozen little-neck clams.)

For my non-fish-eating sister's sake, we followed that with a vegetarian shepherd's pie (there's a joke to be worked out in making a Christmas shepherd's pie with seitan in it...), a tart, crisp, radish and pomegranate salad, and then a salad of mixed greens, nuts and dried fruit. After that came a bowl of clementines, my Aunt Teresa's wouldn't-be-a-holiday-without-it chocolate mousse and an Italian cheesecake, or pizza di ricotta.

Also for the first time, my mother climbed the three flights of stairs to my apartment (for 16 months she's been claiming bad knees) and there was pleasant conversation, much clinking of glasses, I was complimented on my apartment, my tree, and my cioppino, and no one fought or cried or talked much junk about anyone else. We also pulled on our coats and headed out the door not feeling like our stomachs may burst. A Christmas miracle.

I hope your holidays were warm and wonderful and filled with small moments you're still marveling over. And even more, I hope that the new year has every blessing in store for you.

Love,
Michelle














Pizza di Ricotta

Filling:
2 lbs of ricotta (organic or non-RBST is ideal)
the zest of half a lemon
1 tbspn vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pastry for the bottom crust and lattice top:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla
the zest of half a lemon

Heat oven to 300. Blend the filling ingredients until smooth, and then set the bowl aside in the refrigerator. To make the pastry, simply combine the pastry ingredients (no need to overwork this), divide the dough in two, and roll each into a circle. Use the first circle as a bottom crust, and then pour in the filling. Slice the second circle into 2-inch strips. (If you have a pastry cutter that makes the edges pretty, even better.) Lay half the strips diagonally and the other half vertically, and then crimp the ends where they meet the bottom crust.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the crust is a light golden color. It will still taste delicious if you take it out when the crust is as white as the filling, but I promise you it won't be as appetizing on the table.

Note: Cold the next morning, this is the greatest breakfast ever (for anyone who obsessively loves ricotta).