With Cinnamon, Butter & Maple Syrup
A few days ago a duo came to interview me here at home. The cameraman, who emerged from the pale yellow Panda van with a large black camera already lodged on one shoulder, introduced himself as Kevin. He had piercing blue eyes and was dressed in a lumberjack and suede boots, and what with Kevin not being a hugely Italian-sounding name it wasn’t long before I had wheedled out of him where he was from, or whether his Sardinian parents had just happened to have a penchant for the name.
He was half American, half Sardinian, a Sardinian father and an American mother, and he nodded emphatically behind his camera lens during the interview as I retold all of my favourite Italian-meets-English-culture confrontation stories. He particularly liked the story about the gravy, the one where Luca ate his first English roast at my house, and then went to sleep whispering softly to himself about this new-found wonder he named, “The Gravy Sauce”.
When we were done with the filming Kevin finally propped his camera on the table and really got into the story telling. I love it when you can literally see people swell before your eyes with the stories they want to tell you. My son does it too, even though he can’t yet talk, I know when he wants to tell me something (he does it in his own special language, which mostly consists of two words unique to him, beee-oooooh or chickkum) because he puffs up before me like a proud little blueberry.
Kevin told me about his dual identity, and how great it had been to grow up bi-lingual, and feel part of and live in two cultures. He told me about pancakes (people are never happier than when discussing food or relationships, which is lucky because these are my two favourite subjects too). He said he always makes cinnamon pancakes, and they have won over many Sardinian sceptics. He also picked up on one of my responses to the questions (the inevitable ‘what’s your favourite ingredient’?, to which I responded, zucchini). He told me, in a conspiratorial whisper, that he often made zucchini bread (like banana bread but with zucchini - and something I desperately want to develop a recipe for).
All this made me think about proper American pancakes, the ones you dream about in all of your cliched dreams of American diners. In my ignorant English mind, there are two sticky images of American food culture, no doubt lodged there by the endless 90’s American rom coms I was raised on; the archetypal American diner (complete with stacks of pancakes, club sandwiches and slices of pie) and the Chinese takeout box. Before I die, I want to experience these two things by whatever means possible. It’s a modest ambition, I’ll admit, and I know there are a million more subtle shades to American food culture, but nothing can stop me from wanting to slurp noodles from a box or devour a tower of pancakes from a diner with a striped awning and an old lady in a bonnet and pinny.
Anyway, I digress. I decided, seeing as it is a particularly American time of year in the food world - what with Thanksgiving, Halloween and pumpkin picking - that I would make some pancakes, failing being able to hop on a plane and find the perfect diner to live out my fantasy at last. And then, seeing as nothing pleases me more than an onomatopoeic recipe, and I also adore pumpkin and will bake it into anything, I struck upon the idea of adding some pumpkin puree into my favourite ricotta pancake mix (I know almost every recipe I write includes ricotta but what I can say, it’s one of my favourite ingredients, along with zucchini…). The result was the most beautiful orange, creamy, fluffy, caramel-like pancakes, which I ate with salted butter and maple syrup. Perfection, thanks to Kevin.
Serves 2, generously
200g pureed pumpkin (Halve a pumpkin, preferably Delica or Onion, scoop out the seeds, roast a halved pumpkin in a low oven, cut side down, until completely soft. Scoop out the creamy flesh and discard the skin)
100g ricotta
2 eggs
160g whole milk
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp baking powder
Salt, a good pinch
Butter for frying, and more for serving
Maple syrup
Whisk the pumpkin puree with the milk, eggs and ricotta until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and whisk again until you have a smooth creamy batter.
Heat a little butter in a pan and pour some of it into the pancake mixture and stir to incorporate. Then scoop the mixture into the pan, a small lade-full at a time and fry the pancakes over a medium heat until cooked well on both sides and in the middle. Serve with butter and maple syrup.
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