In a couple of weeks, Yanni is coming to the city that I live in for a concert. You know, Yanni. The Greek composer born Yiannis Hryssomallis and the architect of such memorable ditties as ummmm…quickly looking up Wikipedia….Keys to the Imagination…allegedly.
He calls himself “new age”.
Look, Yanni’s most interesting claim to fame is that he was in a relationship with Linda (Khrystal Carrington) from Dynasty – she of the shoulderpads and the fight with Joan Collins that ended in a pond.
Stick with me, there is a point. Yanni remains popular for all his NEw Age metrosexuality in spite of his blandness.
Ricotta is the Yanni of Italian cheese. Ricotta (literally meaning “recooked”) uses whey, the liquid that remains after straining curds when making cheese. Most of the milk protein (especially casein) is removed when cheese is made, but some protein remains in the whey.
Ricotta curds are creamy white in appearance, slightly sweet in taste, and contain around 13% fat. You need to load it up in order to appreciate it. It can be as bland or as flavorful as you want it. In it’s raw unadulterated form it’s fairly bland.
Some people like it with honey or cinnamon or more commonly in savory dishes like pastas.
I like my ricotta with added extras, so I loaded up a store bought container of whipped Ricotta with semi dried tomatoes, parmesan, chilli flakes lots of seasoning. I stuffed it into some olive oiled portobello mushroom caps, baked at 200 degrees for 20 minutes and there was a simple, tasty lunch.
The results were far more interesting than sitting through two hours of Yanni.
