Still cooking, sometimes

It seems these days it is a rare occasion that I actually find myself in the kitchen and in the mood to actually create something. This week, though, I had some whole milk ricotta I had impulse-bought when I found it marked down to half its original price.

The ricotta reached its sell-by date, and I was determined to get in there and do something with it...but what?

The idea of a ricotta dumpling popped in from nowhere, so I looked it up and found a recipe I liked and had enough hard cheese to make. I toasted up the Bohemian Beer Bread cubes that were waiting in my fridge for a panzanella that was never going to happen, gave them a whirl with the stick blender, and used those for my breadcrumbs. And it turns out that the whisk attachment that seems completely useless when you try to use it in a bowl (unless you want to take a trip to Mess City) beats egg whites at lightning speed in its own measuring cup. Who knew?!

I did not have mushrooms, so I just topped them with some jarred tomato sauce.

And you don't get a picture because tasty ≠ pretty.