What's For Dessert: Ricotta Cappuccino

{the ingredients: ricotta cheese, raw sugar, espresso powder, and a vanilla bean}

Tonight's dessert was inspired by a recipe on a recent episode of Everyday Italian. Four ingredients and about five minutes later . . . dessert was done! Well, all but the chilling in the fridge for one hour part, anyway. This was the perfect dessert recipe, given that I already had all of the ingredients on hand -- a nearly-full carton of ricotta cheese leftover from making ravioli the other day, plenty of espresso powder from my foray into making tiramisu, and perhaps most exciting, a container of vanilla beans that I had impulsively put in my cart on a recent trip to Costco.

Ricotta Cappuccino (printer-friendly version)
makes 4 servings

1/2 C raw sugar
1 vanilla bean
1/2 T espresso powder
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese

1. Split open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds into a food processor along with the sugar, and process to combine.
2. Add the ricotta cheese and espresso powder into the food processor. Blend the mixture together for one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then process for another minute.
3. Spoon the combined mixture into four teacups. Cover and place in the fridge to chill for at least one hour.

I opted to finish off this dessert with a little whipped cream dolloped on top:

Whipped Cream

1/2 C organic heavy cream

1/2 T confectioner's sugar

1/2 T vanilla extract

1. Chill your mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

2. Pour the heavy cream into the chilled mixing bowl, and whip at high speed. When cream begins to thicken, add the sugar and vanilla extract.

3. Continue to whip the cream until stiff peaks form.

4. Add a dollop of whip cream to each cup of ricotta cappuccino; use a sifter to add a pinch of cinnamon and cocoa powder to garnish.