How do you keep traditions alive, and at the same time stay creative and flexible? Every year, during Passover, our family talks about incorporating Kitniyot into our diet. My reaction is always the same, how will future generations know about our family’s Ashkenazi traditions, if we all end up eating rice and legumes. Without preserving some of our differences, it seems that we have more to lose than we have to gain.
Food is a way for me to preserve memories of my mother and pass on her traditions. One memory is that she always made blintzes for Shavuot. Tonight I decided to try something new in preparation of the holiday. I made a layered cheese pie filled with ricotta and mascarpone, a far cry from the traditional farmer cheese filling of the blintzes that my mother lovingly prepared. I am sure it will be delicious (it is an Ina Garten recipe) but I already feel a pang of guilt, as if I chipped away at a family tradition and one small memory of my mother. Chag Sameach, enjoy the layered Ricotta pie, but next year I am serving blintzes.
Baked Ricotta Pie (adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten)
1 1/4 cups milk
2 Tbs sour cream
1/2 stick melted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/3 cup flour
Beat ingredients together in large bowl and pour half the batter into a greased 9 x 13 Pyrex dish. Bake for about 10 minutes in a pre-heated 350 degree oven.
Filling
22 oz. fresh ricotta cheese
8 oz. mascarpone cheese
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
Mix all ingredients and pour over baked layer of batter. Spoon remaining batter on top and bake an additional 30-40 minutes. Serives 6
Enjoy,
Irene
Wow! Sounds wonderful, but I prefer to eat my calories from the cheesecake, and keep the main meal mostly salads. However, I think that this dish would be terrific for break fast! Bring it back in the fall! This year I made a side dish of garbanzo beans (chic peas for us Yankee-bred folks) with a sun-dried tomato and garlic vinagrette. The salad was made from dried, not canned, legumes. Lori
You are much more disciplined than I am!! Shabbat Shalom Lori.
This looks like a simple and healthier alternative to fried blintzes. But I think my kids would rebel if I tried to skip cheese blintzes!
Do you think so? Either way, make your kids bintzes, I miss having them already and the holiday hasn’t even started.
Chag Sameach,
Irene