ricotta – Mamma wears Prada

How come I remember to cook savoury pancakes only when Pancake day (Shrove Tuesday) comes? I usually make Nutella or jam pancakes, pretty often for breakfast but I never remember that a savoury version of a pancake is a yummy option for a different dinner.

This year I decided to try something unusual and I was looking for a different combination of ingredients. When I saw this Italian style recipe on the Prosciutto di Parma website, I thought it was the one: Parma ham, ricotta, pears and maple syrup combined together in a stack of pancakes! Is it good? It’s SUPER YUMMY!

For this recipe you would need:

150g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 x 250g ricotta cheese
2 ripe pears
12 slices Parma ham
Maple syrup
180ml milk
2 tbsp melted butter

Method

1. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. In a different bowl whisk your milk, egg and melted butter and combine the mixture to the dry ingredients. Leave to stand for 15 minutes.

2. Heat a small knob of butter or drizzle some frying oil in a non-stick frying pan ( I used a very thin one specific to make omlettes/pancakes/crepes) then drop a tablespoon of the pancake batter. Cook it until you notice some bubbles on the surface (you can lift it a bit to check if the downside reached a golden colour) and then flip it to the other side.

TIP: to make the pancakes round spread them gently with the back of a table spoon

Leave the pancake over the heat for a further minute or until both sides are golden brown. Repeat until you finish all the batter, you should end up with 12 medium-sized pancakes.

3. Divide the pancakes on 4 plates and layer them with ricotta cheese, sliced pear and Parma ham. Top each one with a slice of Parma ham and drizzle some maple syrup.

To give a crunchy twist to this recipe you can try and cook your parma ham and make it crispy, yum!

If you love Parma ham as much as I do then you can try and make a parma ham, pear, goat’s cheese pancake stack with a cranberry glaze or parma ham, rocket and red onion marmalade pancake. Mhh, I just finished prepraring these pancakes and I’m hungry again!