ratatouille tart with ricotta

I am bundled to the brim. Someone turn the sun back on please. Wool socks and long cashmere sweaters are nice, but I’d rather not be wearing them right now. I’d also rather not be drinking excessive amounts of coffee in an attempt to keep myself warm.

This current cold snap sent me into a produce panic (likely induced by excessive caffeine consumption). I’m not ready for gratin dishes stuffed with root vegetables and bubbling cheeses. I’ll eat summer fruits and veggies by the bushel if it means postponing winter for just a little bit longer.

That’s what I tried to do with this tart, stuff it with summer, but it’s a bit deceiving. It’s overflowing with summer veggies and it’s colorful and cheerful yes, but those zucchini slices are sitting on top of a buttery crust and a warm ricotta under layer. Don’t get me wrong, I really did want to make a purely summer dish, but a cold salad just wasn’t going to cut it, I needed something warm and cozy and comforting. Simply put I needed winter to be disguised by summer. And it sort of worked, but I still want a bit more summer, or at least fall.

It's Monday, which means this recipe is doubling as the 'Recipe of the Week' over at My Girlfriend Guide to Zürich. Last week I attended their Girls Night Out event at the Museüm fur Gestaltung (The Design Museum) where we were treated to a tour of the François Berthoud exhibit, given by François himself. A notable fashion illustrator (think Vogue, Channel, Dior, Cartier, etc) his works were provocative in their simplicity of color and form. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the Zürich area.

Winter is on it's way and these two pictures are proof. First there is the wool coat sitting and munching hay on the right and then there is the freestyle snowboarding run on the left. Well at least I think it's going to be for snowboarding. They've set it up right in the Wollishofen park down the lake from us. Yikes. I'll have to be sure to go check it out next weekend when the event is supposedly taking place.

The dough is easier to make by hand than you might think. Combine butter, flour and a little bit of ice cold water and you have tart/pie dough. I rub the butter/flour between my fingers until there aren't any pieces of butter larger or thicker than a US quarter/Swiss Franc coin. This ensures that the crust will be flakey and light.

This tart is composed of a bunch of layers. First the onions, ricotta, tomato sauce, eggplants, and then the spiraling veggies, then a bit more eggplant and sauce and then more spiraling veggies. You can design it however you like, the end result is apt to be the same.

Ratatouille Tart with Ricotta

* cooks note. I used homemade ricotta and homemade sauce in this tart. I was inspired by this site and this post, which we've made twice this week already. The remaining sauce and ricotta helped inspire this ratatouille tart. If you live in Switzerland and want to make your own ricotta email me because I went about it a round-about way, using muslin I found in the baby department of Manor, which necessitated a slightly different process, but with the same silky smooth cheesy outcome.

Marcella Hazan's sauce recipe

Gwyneth and Ina's ricotta recipe

tart dough - makes enough for 2 tarts, although you will only need enough for 1. You can refrigerate or freeze the second dough ball, or halve the recipe. Stay tuned for an appearance of the second dough ball on house-to-haus soon.

2 cups/240g all purpose flour

1/2tsp/2.5mL kosher salt

12 tablespoons/1.5sticks/170g cold unsalted butter

1/2 cup/120mL ice water

filling

1 large onion or 3 small ones roughly chopped (Zurich folks - I was able to find a large one at Coop)

2 eggplants, on the smaller side, thinly sliced

2 zucchini thinly sliced

1 red pepper thinly sliced (you won't use all of it so only slice 1/2 the pepper)

1 yellow pepper thinly sliced (you won't use all of it so only slice 1/2 the pepper)

1-2 San Marzano or Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced

6-8 tablespoons/120mL tomato sauce

2/3 cup/125g ricotta cheese, more or less to taste

salt, pepper and olive oil for sprinkling on tart before baking

equipment

10" tart pan with removable bottom

mandolin slicer, for those nice slice vegetable slices

Prepare the tart dough. Combine salt and flour in a large bowl. Add the butter in small chunks and integrate into the flour using your fingers. To ensure a flakey crust do not over mix. It's okay to leave some butter pieces fairly large and uneven, about the size and thickness of a quarter or franc coin. Slowly pour the water into the dough and mix with a fork. Only use as much water as you need to form the dough into a ball. Divide the dough into two balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour

The eggplants take a bit of prep work so while the dough is cooling begin by slicing the eggplants into relatively thin slices, about 1/8” – ¼” (3mm-6mm). Lay the slices on a paper towel, sprinkle lightly with salt and allow to sit and ‘sweat’ for roughly 30min. Pat the slices dry with a towel. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. In batches cook the slices for roughly 2-3 minutes a side, adding more oil if you need it, and then place on a plate.

While you are waiting for the eggplants to sweat you can cook the onions. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and add the onion, stirring occasionally until the onion is soft, juicy, and slightly tan in color, about 15 minutes. Place in a bowl and set aside.

Slice the remaining vegetables about 1/8”/3mm.

Lightly flour your work surface and with a rolling pin roll one of the dough discs into a rough circle about 1/8” / 3mm thick large enough to cover your tart pan. Don’t roll up and down, but rather roll out from the center, turning the dough every so often to ensure even thickness. Place the dough in your butter-greased tart pan, smooth out around the edges and trim excess dough.

Preheat oven to 375ºF/190ºC. Begin layering the veggie slices. Start with the onions, spreading them over the dough. Follow with the ricotta and then most of the tomato sauce. Place some of the larger eggplant slices, as many as will fit, on top of the tomato/ricotta/onion layers. Drizzle with the remaining tomato sauce. Starting from the outside begin to spiral the zucchini, pepper, eggplant and tomato slices in whatever order, fashion you please (I did 3 zucchini, then 2 pepper, 1 eggplant and 1 tomato, but really it’s up to you and what veggie you want to feature). Before you continue to the inner spirals add 3 or 4 more of the larger eggplant slices in the middle. Continue spiraling until you reach the center. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and olive oil.

Place in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes. Let it cool a bit and then remove the tart plan. Best served warm.

We ate the tart for lunch, hot out of the oven, and then we went for a bike ride. We came back with cold ears and fingers and so we ate another slice of tart, as a snack. And then feeling cozy and settled in the evening, unwilling to cook up something new, we ate another slice, or two, for dinner. It was the perfect food to have around on a cold day.
'We' went on a bike ride, which means I bought a bike! We went back to the flea market this weekend and I found a blue 1980s style cruiser bike. It doesn't have a basket yet, but I'm on a mission to find one.

Okay time to reheat the tart for lunch! I'm hungry and cold. Stay warm Zürich readers!

bread, books, and a bike

There are some things that you just can't anticipate. I didn't want to move abroad and I never thought I would, but here I am, in Switzerland of all places, and I'm happy. I never thought I'd eat salami and parmesan cheese for lunch, but I just did. And I never thought I'd have a blog, let alone a food blog, but nine months ago I clicked 'publish post' for the first time and today I'm posting the 100th post. This is it, #100. Have you been here since post #1, way back when I wasn't even sure what haus would turn in to (although I still don't really know)? If so thank you!

While I'm on the topic of the unexpected, I never expected to be baking so much bread. Fresh bread is everywhere in Zürich and there is little need for me to make my own, except that it is just so satisfying to eat bread baked in your oven.

This is Betty's Bread. When I was lounging by the pool in Tuscany (siiigh) with my friend Katie and her mom Betty, and Betty heard that I was doing a lot of baking she mentioned that her go-to recipe is a Honey Whole Wheat loaf. She sent me the recipe, and while the addition of cottage cheese threw me for a loop, I went ahead and baked it and let me tell you, it's delicious. The loaf is hearty and sturdy with a hint of sweetness. It's wonderful. Thank you Betty for sharing your recipe!

I paired the bread photos with some photos I took this past weekend at the flea market in Bürkliplatz. Zach and I joke that if you are looking for a keyboard from 1993 or a first generation cell phone then this market is for you. As with any flea market there is some good mixed in with the bad, you just have to hunt for it, evidenced by the fact that Zach walked away with a bike! A blue frame with white curved handlebars and a nice little bell! Now I'm jealous.

In case you live in Switzerland and have no idea what a packet of yeast (Hefe) looks like (the one above was purchased at Coop) or what the translation of cottage cheese is in german (Hüttenkäse), hopefully the above pictures will give you a little guidance. I should mention that I am not a cottage cheese fan. Actually I've never tried it, but I just know I won't like it. You shouldn't be able to eat cheese with a spoon out of a yogurt container. If you have a cottage cheese phobia, don't worry, you won't even know it's there. It just helps provide some moisture and density to the dough.

The bread goes through two rising periods, where it doubles in size each time. My apartment is running on the chilly side these days so I turned on the oven and put the bowl on the shelf above it so it would receive some ambient heat and rise faster.

This is the dough after the second rise, ready to be scored and placed in the oven.

Poor bread has had a rough go of it since the early twentieth century. First it's inundated with preservatives, pre-sliced and stuffed into slick plastic bags and shoved on the supermarket shelves where it seemingly stays fresh until purchased and fresh for a week on the kitchen counter. And then, just as the local-preservative-free-organic market starts up, promising a rise in fresh bread, Dr. Atkins comes along and puts it on the 'Do Not Eat' list. Oy. If only Atkins had rallied again sliced bread, because 'sliced bread' is not the best thing (actually there was a ban on pre-sliced bread during World War II, imposed to help conserve plastic as well as to counteract a rise in bread prices). Bread should be bought whole, sliced at home, and eaten that day. It is an of-the-moment food. If you buy it today, it should be stale in two days, if not tomorrow, and if it's not, well, then you should be concerned. Since this recipe makes two loaves, I sliced one and put it in the freezer.

Betty's Honey Whole Wheat Bread - makes two loaves

ingredients

- 1 1/2 cups water

- 1 cup/8oz cottage cheese

- 1/2 cup honey

- 1/4 cup/4 tbsp butter

- 4 1/2 to 5 cups white flour

- 2 cups whole wheat flour

- 2 tbsp sugar

- 3 tsp salt

- 2 packages/4.5 tsp/.5 oz instant dry yeast

- 1 egg

Directions

Heat the first four ingredients (water, c.cheese, honey, butter) until very warm, either in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes or in a saucepan on the stovetop.

Pour the liquid in to a large bowl, or the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the dough hook, add 2 cups of white flour and beat until flour is incorporated. Add the sugar, salt, yeast and slowly add in the rest of the flour and the egg. You might not be able to get all of the white flour in, you just want to be sure you have a stiff dough. Knead the dough on a well floured surface for 2 minutes or more.

Place the dough in a butter-greased bowl. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until it doubles in size. Butter-grease two 9"x5" or 8" x 4" loaf pans. After the first rise take the dough out of the bowl, punch down and shape into two loaves and place in the greased loaf pan. Let the dough rise for another hour.

Preheat the oven to 350º/179ºC and bake for about 45 minutes. Remove from pan and let the bread cool slightly before slicing and devouring.

There's Zach on his new bike. I'm in the market for one too, but I'm not quite sure where to look. Zürich folks, do you have any suggestions? I'd like a cruiser bike with a basket, preferably used (read: cheap).

Every since I woke up on Sunday with a slight white-wine headache and a belly full of greasy potato chips I've been craving a bagel with cream cheese, my go-to Sunday indulgence. Since bagels, the real New York ones, are hard to come by here, and because it takes a lot of planning to make your own, I decided to spread cream cheese on a slice of this warm bread. And then I added some raspberry jam, just for fun. In the picture on the right I'm helping myself to another little sliver, which inevitably became an entire second slice.

zwetschgentorte or plum torte

I wake up in the mornings wondering what season has ushered in the day, curious about what to wear and what to do. I hope for crisp fall days while at the same time wanting to hold on to what is left of those long summer nights. I stepped off the plane last week and immediately sensed that fall had arrived only to be overwhelmed by heat and the urge to jump in the lake this weekend. The weather is waffling between sunny, and I mean oppressively hot and sunny, and cloudy and cool with breezes that make you wish you spun your own wool so you could hoard it in the form of sweaters and scarves and nice tall socks.

Those crisp breezes have always signaled new beginnings, and so here I am again spending another September settling into something new. This is it. I live in Zürich. I will live here until whenever it is we decide we want to go home (mild panic followed by excitement).

I tend to think you can sense the new beginnings in the smell of fresh notebooks and sharpened pencils and in my particular case, in the smell of sugar plums immersed in buttery batter baking under the cover of a few teaspoons of cinnamon. After my recent blogging hiatus, which makes this post feel like the start of something new, I wanted to start things up again with something simple and seasonal, something that maybe you, eager to start something new this September too, might even try at home. This New York Times recipe by Marian Burros is a staple of fall baking, evidenced by its twelve appearances between 1983 and 2005. It was first published on September 21, 1983 (which also happened to be my first birthday - a September birthday has always added to the sense that things begin anew in the fall) and because readers wrote in suggesting that the recipe "has become the adult version of September's shiny new notebook for school," it was re-published eleven subsequent Septembers.

In case the waffling weather has gotten the better of your senses about what season it is you can always go to the market where the arrival of apples, pumpkins, squash and these little Italian Prune Plums will certainly help you see that fall has arrived. I'd never baked with these particular plums before, or with any plums for that matter, but this torte is worthy of those twelve New York Times appearances. It is delicious. I spoke in expletives after taking my first bit it was just that good. Zach agrees that this torte is a winner. The plums sink and melt into the buttery dough during making, ensuring a moist and flavorful cake.

The plums you are looking for are the little purple football-shaped ones. They are noted as Sugar Plums or Italian Prune Plums and they generally flood the markets between the end of August and the middle of October. In case the season happens to end early this year I recommend heading out asap to purchase some of these plums. You likely have all of the other ingredients you need so while you are out grab a springform pan, the cheesecake lover in you will be ecstatic, and get excited about making this amazing dessert.

Plum Torte : from Marian Burros for the New York Times it is the most frequently requested recipe in the Times archive and was the most frequently published recipe (no pressure for it too be sensational or anything...)

Ingredients

- 1 cup/120g all purpose four

- 1 teaspoon/5ml baking powder

- large pinch of salt

- 1 cup/200g sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling

- 1 stick/8tablespoons/113g of unsalted butter, softened

- 2 large eggs

- 12 Italian Prune Plums, halved and pitted

- 2 teaspoons/10ml fresh lemon juice, depending on the tartness of the plums

- 1 teaspoon/5ml ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF/179ºC.

Cream 1 cup of sugar with the butter in a large bowl with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light in color. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then add them to the butter-sugar mixture. Follow with the two eggs.

Spoon the batter into an ungreased 9" springform pan. Cover the top of the batter with the plum halves, skin side up. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar and the lemon juice, adjusting to the tartness of the plums. Sprinkle with the cinnamon.

Bake the plum torte until the cake is golden and the plums are bubbling about 45-50 minutes. Cool on a wire wrack then unmold.

* cooks note: The original recipe called for 1 cup of sugar, which was later reduced to 3/4 cup. I chose to stick with the 1 cup, but feel free to try the 3/4 cup. When I looked for images of the torte it seemed that many bakers chose to place the plums skin side down. The torte is certainly prettier that way, but I can't imagine it's as moist and juicy as the original skin side up torte, which allows the bubbling prune juices to flow into the batter.

The torte capped off a sensational dinner last night. Zach loves our new grill so we made grilled chicken sandwiches topped with avocado, cheddar cheese and In n' Out Animal Style sauce complete with caramelized onions (recipe here). The expletives for the tart were merely only follow up to the sandwich expletives. Damn Good!

If it isn't already clear, then I better state it again, make this torte. It is incredible. It doesn't need ice cream to help it along, although of course ice cream never hurt, it's just simple delicious on it's own. It's deliciousness is enhanced by it's simplicity, simple ingredients and a simple process. Zach and I both put it at the top of all desserts I've made so far. Apparently it freezes really well so I might just go ahead and buy the markets out of plums and bake away until there's no more room in my freezer, which actually won't take that long considering my little European freezer is teeeny tiny.

In case you make the torte and fall in love with plums and want to try some other recipes, I came across these in my search..

- more of a crumble than a cake from Melissa Clark of the NYTimes.

- a gooey plum crostata from Melissa Clark of the NYTimes (I wonder if Melissa is trying to beat out the fame of the infamous plum torte?)

- Marian Burros plum crumble which she says is as good if not better than the torte. I don't think that's possible, but I better give it a test run.

- a plum tart from the Barefoot Contessa - tough for those of us living in Europe who don't have access to good Brown Sugar

Let me know how these turn out if you try them and don't be surprised if one of them pops up on housetohaus soon.

Phew! post complete. It was tough gearing up to post after such a long break. The pressure builds and the excuses mount, but hopefully this broke the ice and there won't be any long hiatuses ahead.

recently

The air is crisp and fall-like here in Connecticut. Typically we'd have all of the doors and windows shut and the air conditioning humming, but Irene blew through and took our power with her, so instead we are listening to the chirping crickets. Anticipating nasty travel delays we prolonged our time in Montana by a day and waited out Irene in the calm fields of the Bitterroot Valley (the picture above).

Back home now I'm counting down my last few days in the states. The back and forth, which has defined the last few months of my life, are finally over. My visa has arrived!! I went into the city to pick up my visa-stamped-passport this morning and subsequently booked my one way ticket back to Zürich. I'm looking forward to settling back into life in Switzerland, or really settling in for the first time. This is it. This is the real thing. And I can't wait!

I hope you can bare with me for another week of infrequent blog posts. Perhaps we can consider this a little summer vacation. I'll be back in Zürich on Wednesday and hopefully posting soon after that. Happy long weekend (to those of you in the sates)!