Food for Angels

[bunnyjadwiga]

This was one of the things I put on the St. Luke's dayboard-- it's one of my never-fail recipes-- but I didn't have it in the documentation. It makes a nice cookie dip or fruit dip, and if you use 'potcheese' (soft cheese) rather than ricotta, or keep it really cold, it also makes a nice spread.

Food for Angels
From the Libro de Sent Sovi, translated in Santich, Barbara, The Original Mediterranean Cuisine (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1995)

Angel's Food
If you want to eat the fresh curds, put the curds in the mortar and pound with some good white sugar. And when pounded together, blend in some rosewater or orangeflower water, and put it in bowls or dishes or whatever you like; and serve it at table... And you can do the same with fresh cheese, which is better, and it is called angel's food.

2 lb container ricotta cheese
several tsps orangeflower water
sugar to taste

I was in a hurry, and the ricotta I had was some my mom had in the freezer, so it was broken in curd. However, for a sweet dish, I had the perfect helper on hand-- a teenage girl. I had her dump the ricotta in a bowl and mix it. I added several generous splashes of orangeflower water -- I use that more often than rosewater because some people have an automatic rosewater=soap reaction; someone once said "I feel like I'm eating face cream"...
Then I handed her the box of sugar and said, "This dish is called food for angels. Keep stirring in sugar and tasting it until it tastes like food for angels.
I believe everyone in the kitchen tried it at some point, and it was nummy.

Also, you can substitute splenda for the sugar if you want. :)

Comments

OOOH!

[bytchearse.livejournal.com]

Nice cook's directions too!

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

That sounds delicious. Now I am hungry.

Orangeflower water = made from the flowers of oranges? Would appleflower water work, I wonder? Orange trees are in short supply, but I've apple trees aplenty.

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

It's the distilled essence of orange-tree flowers. I could find a way to send you some (it's pretty cheap down here, and I tend to buy bottles and misplace them anyway)

[landverhuizer.livejournal.com]

hehe, I actually enjoy rosewater and use in on a fairly regular basis... though yeah, heard that too!

not sure about the splenda... it tastes to sweet, but then I don't have taste-buds adapted to stuff like that.

Splenda

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

What I meant to say was that I had used Splenda (with the granular Splenda for cooking, not the envelopes) in making this dish once or twice and it turned out well to my taste.

[kandy-elizabet.livejournal.com]

I remember this on a dayboard and calling deciding it was totally correctly named. Glad to see recipe.

And, it would be a great addition to a certain someone's cheese class... Hun? you "listening"? :)

[hroar.livejournal.com]

I would HAVE to be Splenda. It is a live saver fo rme!