COOK THE BOOK BLOG, NUMERO UNO

Just to spice things up a bit on this here blog, we’re gonna be cooking our way through “Vegan With a Vengeance” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. As a recurring theme this should give the blog a focus and keep us motivated and engaged. Perhaps we’ll even be inspired to eat more planned out, balanced meals and perhaps learn about some new techniques and ingredients. We’ll see.

Why cook this book? Well, for one it was quite reasonably priced on half.com and thus bought sight unseen for well under $5. The recipes appear to be quite doable and affordable, with lots of great ideas for vegan baking and desserts—a fairly uncharted area for us thus far . . .

We’ll try to follow a format of setting the scene (i.e. why we chose the particular recipe), describing the ingredients (hopefully, including a photo of the ingredients laid out on the cutting board). Then, followed by a description of the preparation and cooking process, again hopefully with photos. Finally, the finished product of course, with some insightful thoughts on what we liked (or didn’t) and possible tweaks for the next time.

Phew. With all that said, we are always looking for new ways to enjoy pizza, sans cheese and pepperoni these days, as perfectly delicious pre-made doughs can be had at Trader Joe’s for a whopping $.99. A bargain at twice the price! Anyway, Vegan With a Vengeance (VWAV, for short) has a few pizza recipes, including fresh sauce, fresh dough, fresh pesto and fresh ricotta. While not ideal for our first entry the fresh ricotta was the inspiration for this one, and alas we used our Trader Joe’s pizza dough, jarred tomato sauce, and fresh basil leaves (for the pesto). So I guess this is really a recipe for the faux ricotta, which of all the cheeses out there I perhaps its sweet, creaminess the most.

Here are the ingredients and what the "Ricotta" looks like

Here is the pizza, before baking . . .

Here is the pizza, out of the oven . . .

All said, very delicious and a close approximation of ricotta cheese. Ricotta can be bland on its own, and just as with the real stuff, the addition of garlic, salt, lemon and basil is really what you taste. And, as hopefully the pictures illustrate, it looked (and had the mouth-feel) of the real thing. We’ll surely be using this recipe again, probably in stuffed shells, or another baked pasta very soon.**

**In fact, two days later we did stuffed shells with marinara and it worked perfectly, delicious!