Very easy cheese sformato
After my jam and bread fiasco with my father, I thought I might just please him with a sformato – a word I find impossible to translate as I think literally it would be a ‘moulded’; now who is going to choose a ‘mould’ from a menu. It is actually somewhere between a soufflé and a mousse. My father, who is in his eighties and dentally-challenged is a fussy man. Looked after by my mother, who in her day was a fantastic cook, he is used to good cooking. Nowadays however, food is measured not only by its flavour but by its softness and easiness to eat! So a sformato it was and I am happy to report a great success for my husband, brother and ageing parents. I won’t repeat what Flavio (6) called it but it is evidently not something for small boys. You can’t please everyone, at least the boys are chomping into my homemade bread and plum jam that my father was so rude about.
These can be served with a tomato sauce, red-pepper sauce or a simple dressed green salad. They are good hot or at room temperature. If you want to make them the day before, re-heat them in a bain marie for fifteen minutes in the oven.
Serves 6
250g ricotta, sheep or cow’s milk
4 tbspns double cream, mascarpone or greek yoghurt
3 free-range organic eggs
50g Parmesan or Pecorino, finely grated
Quarter of a nutmeg, finely grated
1 tbspn thyme, oregano or rosemary, finely chopped
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
Butter for greasing
Handful of fine breadcrumbs or Parmesan cheese, finely grated
Pre-heat the oven to 160oC. Then find six moulds, such as thin metal dariole moulds or ramekins. Butter them inside generously and line the base with a small circle of baking parchment. Dust with the breadcrumbs or the cheese and shake out the excess.
In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, cream or yoghurt, cheese, nutmeg, thyme, pepper and salt. In another bowl whisk the eggs until frothy and then combine them with the rest of the ingredients. (Season to taste if you don’t mind tasting raw eggs). Pour this mixture into the moulds until they are three-quarters full.
Stand these in an ovenproof dish such as a lasagne dish and then put this into the oven. Pour a jug of water into the dish, avoiding the moulds, so that the sformati are surrounded by water up to halfway. Cook for around 40 minutes or until they are golden brown and slightly raised. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for a few minutes. When you are ready to serve them, work around the edge with a dinner knife and turn out. Serve onto individual plates with salad or sauce.