One recent morning I awoke in the dark, pre-dawn chill of my room and squinted at the blue numerals on my clock that read 4:50. Instead of turning over for that extra hour of sleep, I blinked, shook my head, and had one not very coherent thought: why is that oven up so high?
Yes, I even think about food in my sleep. I had started my Christmas baking that day, and my subconscious was apparently still back in the kitchen, mixing up a bowl of my grandmother’s anise-flavored ricotta cookies. *
Except for reading and writing, there are few things in life I like better than cooking and eating. In fact, food figures prominently in my books: characters fall in love over simmering pasta pots and steaming plates of risotto, and they trade secrets and confidences across tables. Not surprisingly, my heroes seem to know their way around a kitchen.
If you are Italian—and perhaps even if you are not—you know that food is love. So here’s a little from me to you.
Happy holidays!
♥ ♥ ♥
*Mema’s Ricotta Cookies
2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick of butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of anise extract
1 cup of fresh ricotta cheese
- Pre-heat oven to 350. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into bowl and set aside.
- In a larger bowl or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and anise extract.
- Add dry ingredients and ricotta alternately to butter mixture until well blended.
- Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls, two inches apart, on parchment covered cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake! The bottoms should be a light golden brown.
- Let cool and top with confectioner’s sugar glaze and non-pareils or colored sugars.
- Try not to finish them all before Christmas Eve.
God, I rememer these cookies! Now I know why I can never get mine as good, the anise extract! I just found and made your ginger cookie recipe for the very first time, altho I must’ve asked you for it 15 years ago. Delicious.
Love your site. I hear your voice in every word. xo
So nice to see you here! (And I miss our holiday cookie trading.)
“My heroes seem to know their way around a kitchen.” LOL! I hadn’t thought about it before, but competence in men is very sexy. I agree about men who can cook. And when I was younger all my girlfriends and I seemed to fall for the men who could sing really well.
My fine husband cooks, but is not a natural singer. I’ll take it.
I’ll be adding these to my cookie stash…and, in return, I’ll share a link to a recipe that has become my ravable favorite: lentil cookies. I make them twice a month and accidently substitute them for lunch on my days off.
Merry Christmas, my friend. You nourish my spirits!
Ash,
I’m taking your word on the lentil cookies–but if I want small dark things studding the tops of my cookies, I think I’d prefer mini M&Ms!
JC,
Hmm. . .a singing hero. You’ve got my wheels turning.
Oh, thank you. My late mother-in-law used to make these and I loved them. We haven’t had them in years. Since Hubby is in the kitchen baking cookies as I write this, I am passing the recipe on to him.
Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year
Pat,
Glad I could help–and clearly you have a man “who knows his way around the kitchen.” ;>