And I am back!
I was at friends’ place several weeks ago and right before
dinner we realized there was no dessert.
We opened the refrigerator and… blueberries in season and
one ricotta cheese.
Roberto said to me: “if you do something with the
blueberries I will do something with the ricotta?” to which I replied: “I
surely can do something with blueberries but once each of us will be ready with
his own part we will put together the two creations in wide glasses: a ricotta
and blueberries verrine for dessert!”
And we started!
I used 500 grams (roughly 1 lb) of fresh blueberries, half a
glass of water, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and ½ tablespoon of flour. Roberto used
250 grams (1/2 a pound) of ricotta, 1 tablespoon of sugar and some lemon juice.
So he whisked up the ricotta with the sugar and the lemon
juice to make if as fluffy as possible.
I put on the stove a pan with the water, the sugar and the
blueberries. 3 minutes after the water was boiling, I transferred everything
into a mixing glass and using an immersion blender (known in Portugal as
“varinha magica’ which literally means “magic wand”) I pureed it. I put it back
on the stove, slowly adding the flour (corn or potato starch would also work)
to hold it together.
And at this point I asked my best friend David – the one I
trust the most when it comes to these things – to try and tell me if sugar and
consistency were right and… he approved it!
After a few minutes for my puree to cool off, Roberto poured
the fluffy ricotta mixture on the bottom of the verrines levelling it evenly.
We decided to create a layer of crunchiness (using some crumbled “Bolacha
Maria” that you can find for a ridiculous price at the World Market) and I
added the blueberry puree.
Something was still missing tough. Patrícia (my wife) suggested
adding some blueberries on top, and Ana Sofia – Patrícia’s sister and Roberto’s
wife – and João Francisco – their son and David’s brother – decorated the rest
with some fresh mint leaves.
And the verrines were ready to be put in the refrigerator
waiting to be eaten as dessert.
Too bad you cannot taste it from the pictures but we can
always come to visit you and taste yours to see if it came out as good as ours!
