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RICOTTA 1: Getting the Guy The night before? A dinner starring yourself, a voluptuous dessert of ricotta and honey, and a Sauternes. The next morning at the office there's a bitter aftertaste to the lovely evening: the lingering nickname "Ricottina". The lesson here is that even an innocuous little entity like ricotta can pack a wallop! Picture the evening in question in two parts: one erotic, one culinary -- the latter capped off by a splendid dessert of soft or "wet" ricotta with great swirls of acacia honey, hazelnut and a great Sauternes wine. Now picture the office on the next morning. You're giving your girlfriend a blow-by-blow of the evening's events. Somebody's listening in and stealthily noting your ingredients with blatant disregard for the proper measures of honey (1 full tsp.), ricotta (3 T.) and ground toasted nuts (1 tsp.). But they did manage to get that the ricotta has to be cold, not frozen, before an extensive beating with a fork. Don't you just love it that this eavesdropper, whom you certainly did not choose to write the story of your life, is now armed with the information that you spent a week's salary on a bottle of Sauternes Chateau d'Iquem? This unseen interloper hears your description of the delicate crystal dessert cups; violates more than personal space as you describe the rivulets of golden honey caught up gladly, rapaciously by your lover's spoon. And how dare anyone pry into the intimate affairs of the hazelnuts, ground and toasted to gold in the oven and sprinkled over the ricotta like a final embrace? Now imagine that just as you're about to satisfy your girlfriend's unbounded curiosity ("But, the guy! Who's the guy?), he pokes his head around the corner. OK, not only is he the guy, he's also the boss... And now that you have come to know each other under rather more private circumstances, he smiles foolishly and says "Hey, Ricottina!". Nice to be known at a professional level as "Ricottina", isn'it? You can imagine that after a year, the entire office is calling you "Ricottina". It's got to stop! Go to tactic 2 |
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