We all grew up seeing our parents and grand-parents, who lived through the Great Depression, wars, and/or famines, take care — to the extreme — to not let any drop of sauce from a can, any heel of bread or any minute shred of fish off the bone ever go to waste.
Not on their watch.
And now, not on ours, either.
With the pandemic creating food shortages — both real and exaggerated ones — we find ourselves looking at food much differently now, treating everything with the reverence it deserved all along.
The very bottom stems of parsley that I once tossed? No more. Now, they get finely diced and tossed into salads and soups. Those radish tops I once never looked twice at? Now, I savor them sauteed in an egg scramble.
The leftover ricotta I had from making lamb meatballs? Not that I would deign to ever throw something like that out, but these days, it takes on an outsize importance. Yes, that leftover ricotta that I once just nonchalantly enjoyed with berries for breakfast the next day, now seemed too good for that. Clearly, it should be destined for something far more special, I thought.
I found exactly that in “Louisa’s Cake.”
I don’t know who Louisa is except that she’s an American art director and graphic designer living in Zurich, according to the recipe in “The Food52 Cookbook, Volume 2: Seasonal Recipes from Our Kitchens to Yours” (William Morrow, 2012) by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, and the Food52 community.
And she surely knows how to design a cake. This one is baked with a generous amount of butter, ricotta, lemon zest, and surprisingly, grated apple.
You don’t taste the apple. In fact, you’d never guess it was there from eating this cake.
It adds moisture, as does the ricotta, along with a little more body to the batter.
This sunny-yellow cake is incredibly moist, very buttery, and quite rich. There’s almost a backbone taste of creamy milkiness to it. Its crumb is somehow compact yet fluffy and light.
This is as easy and straightforward a cake as there is. It’s not full of frills and flourishes, which it certainly doesn’t need.
It may be called Louisa’s Cake. But really, it’s everybody’s cake, because it’s truly that ideal of a one.
Louisa’s Cake
(Serves 6)
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pan
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 large eggs
Pinch of salt
1 cup fresh ricotta
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 apple, peeled, cored, and grated (should yield about 1 cup)
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter and flour a 9- or 10-inch springform pan.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the flour, then add the salt, ricotta, lemon zest, baking powder, and apple, mixing well after each addition.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and is starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
From “The Food52 Cookbook, Volume 2” by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs
Another “Food52, Volume 2” Recipe: Roasted Broccoli with Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette and Marcona Almonds
More Ways to Use Ricotta: Ricotta Pound Cake
And: Slow-Braised Lamb Ragu with Rigatoni and Whipped Ricotta
And: Mezze Maniche with Guanciale, Chiles, and Ricotta
And: Penne with Ricotta, Parmesan, and Peas
And: Quick-Pickled Grape Tomatoes on Ricotta Toast
Plus: Planked Wild Salmon with Nectarines, Thyme, Honey, Almonds, and Ricotta