Fusion Enchiladas
Things are not always as they seem, not even in the world of cheese. Having grown up eating my share of pizza, I thought I knew what mozzarella tasted like, but when I took my first bite of mozzarella di bufalo — made of 100% buffalo milk — I realized I’d been missing out on true mozzarella all along.
Given how much I’ve always enjoyed lasagna, I thought I’d experienced the full flavor of ricotta, too. Then I tried ricotta salata last week and was surprised once again: for one thing, it was from Italy and therefore made of sheep’s milk (cow-milk ricotta is more common in the U.S.), and as its name implied, it was indeed salty. It was also a fairly dry, hard cheese, yet one that didn’t taste overly sheepish. Reminded me of Greek mizithra.
I had a feeling the ricotta salata probably wouldn’t be the best melting cheese…and it wasn’t. Nonetheless, its intriguing salty tang and dry, almost crunchy texture works on baked dishes and pastas.
For these “enchiladas,” I used leftover savory crepes that I’d made with a 50/50 split of corn flour and brown rice flour. I happened to have leftover roasted pepper, too, so I sautéed some zucchini rounds, simmered some broccoli heads (5 minutes and they’re ready to be drained!), and added those to the peppers for the filling. It was a truly simple dish: I rolled the filling in the crepes, topped them with fresh-style salsa, sprinkled some grated ricotta salata on top, and baked the whole thing at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes. (The cheese won’t melt, but it will get just a bit brown and crispy.)
You could use ricotta salata as a topping for a wide variety of sprinkle-and-bake meals, from casseroles to lasagnas to frittatas. (And you could fill those crepes with anything you’d like, too. ) The salty dryness of ricotta salata also means that it contrasts nicely with sweet, crunchy fruits like pears and apples. Give it a shot — it’s bound to be a new cheese experience!
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Tags: broccoli, crepes, enchiladas, Italian cheeses, ricotta salata, roasted peppers, zucchini
