“As I’ve said before, all my dishes are about balance. You have creaminess from ricotta, sourness from rhubarb—to which one has to add sugar to make it sweet. We needed a crunchy, salty flavor to balance it out, so we added candied olives.”
For the Candied Olives
1 cup pitted Kalamata Olives
water
2 cups sugar
Method
1. Place Kalamata olives in a medium pot, add 2 cups of water.
2. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes, then strain the olives.
3 Repeat the process 6 times, with a fresh two cups of water each time.
4. Now for the seventh round of cooking, place the olives in the pot. Add 1 quart water and 2 cups sugar. Bring to boil and cook 5 minutes. Turn off heat and let cool. Place in a container and let sit overnight in the sugar water.
5. The next day, remove olives from water and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Spread out, sprinkle sugar enough to cover each olive. Shake pan to coat olives evenly. Then place cookie sheet on the floor of the oven until dry and crispy. The heat from the pilot light will slowly dry the olives.
For the Ricotta
3 cups milk
2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tb. white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
Method
1. Heat milk in saucepan to 175 degrees
2. Add lemon juice, vinegar and salt. Stir for a minute. Turn off heat.
3 Let mixture sit for a few hours.
4. When curd has formed, remove with a slotted spoon to a cheesecloth set over a colander and let drain for an hour.
5. Refrigerate
For the Rhubarb
1 quart rhubarb, cut across into 1/3 in. slices
1 1/2 quarts water
1 quart sugar
1. Place all ingredients in a pot and cook rhubarb till semi-soft
2. Turn off heat and let fruit sit in syrup until cool.
3. Refrigerate
For the Tarragon Syrup
1 cup water
i cup tarragon leaves
1/3 cup sugar
1. bring water and sugar to boil. Then cool and chill.
2. puree syrup and tarragon leaves in a blender.
3. Strain out the leaves, leaving the tarragon infused syrup.
Plating
1. Whip ricotta in mixer on medium speed with a balloon whip.
2. Turn off mixer, add half of rhubarb and whip again until rhubarb is incorporated.
3. Divide ricotta among 4 plates, top with remaining rhubarb and olives broken into pieces by hand.
"Shum nbir!" That’s Albanian (my heritage) for Enjoy!