Orange Ricotta Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce.

I don't have a picture of the final product because, um, well, we ate it too quickly. These were so, so good.

Sometimes my favorite recipes come out of necessity - I will have a certain ingredient in my refrigerator or pantry that I used for one recipe, but it isn't something that I use in my everyday cooking, so I go searching.

In this case it was ricotta cheese, that I used to make a lime tart for Easter. I have pasta recipes that use ricotta, but I wasn't in a pasta mood yesterday. So I hunted. I remember seeing recipes for lemon ricotta pancakes and thought that sounded like a good place to start. So I Googled around and found one from Two Peas and Their Pod with a blueberry sauce that looked great.

However, I had a bunch of oranges from my in-laws' tree and fresh strawberries that needed to be used, too. So I improvised and made a couple changes. And now this will be a recipe we make over & over again, for breakfasts on the weekend or breakfast-for-dinner, like we had last night.

Orange Ricotta Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce

Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

For the sauce:

1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

2 C fresh strawberries

3 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp water

Splash (3 Tbsp or so) fresh orange juice.

In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice and cornstarch and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine the strawberries, sugar, water, and orange juice. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and stir in lemon juice and cornstarch mixture. Stir until the sauce thickens slightly. Cover to keep warm and set aside.

For the pancakes:

1 1/4 C all-purpose flour

3 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 C ricotta cheese

1 large egg

2 large egg whites

1/2 C fresh orange juice

2 tsp grated orange zest

1 Tbsp canola oil

1 Tbsp milk

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda & salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together ricotta cheese, egg, egg whites, orange juice, orange zest, canola oil, & milk. Gently fold this mixture into the dry ingredients until flour disappears. Don’t over mix; the batter will be quite thick.

Heat a griddle or a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray. Drop about 1/3 cup of batter onto the hot griddle or skillet. Cook the pancakes until browned on the underside and beginning to set, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook the pancakes on the other side, about two minutes longer. Continue making pancakes until batter is gone. Serve warm with strawberry sauce.