Let me tell you a little story. It’s about being dim (my being dim, of course).

I went to the cheese shop that I always go to. They have a really wonderful house-made ricotta there; it’s light, with just the right amount of salt, and tastes like cream. I was going to bake a ricotta pound cake, and needed 14 ounces of the stuff. I asked the cheese monger behind the counter for said amount, and he replied, “Oh, you’ll need quite a lot,” and handed me a three pound container. (Come to think of it, this story may be about two dim people.) I took the enormous vat, noting it was quite heavy, but not thinking too much about it until I got home. There I struck myself on the forehead; I had a massive brain fart. 14 ounces is just about a pound– that’s what I should have asked for! Now what was I going to do with all of this excess ricotta?

So at my house, September was the month of ricotta. We had a pound cake. I swirled it into some sauteed greens. Ricotta has been spread on baguette slices, then drizzled with honey. But the best recipe by far, has been cheese blintzes.

There are a lot of cheese blintz recipes out there. Some use cottage cheese, others farmers cheese; many contain cream cheese. But the recipe that I decided on– for obvious reasons– just uses ricotta cheese. My ricotta was fairly dry (I think that I would advise draining if your ricotta has an abundance of moisture), so I added an egg for binding, a bit of sugar, and the zest of a lemon. I had read somewhere that esteemed food writer, Mimi Sheraton (her German Cookbook was one of the first cookbooks that I ever received), always added a bit of wheat germ to her filling as well– so I did the same.

The crepes couldn’t be simpler. While cooked through, they are browned only on one side. The pale, golden brown color remains on the exterior of the blintz once its rolled. Although nontraditional, I substituted a bit of buckwheat flour in the batter. The nuttiness paired well with the wheat germ in the filling.

I know that making the crepes, filling them with the cheese, and then frying the blintz, may seem like a lot of work; but I split it into a couple of days. One day I made the crepes, separated each one with waxed paper, then stored them overnight in the fridge. The next morning I made the filling, and recruited my husband to aid in the rolling. Believe it or not, it went by quickly.

I fried some of the blintzes in a mixture of butter and a bit of oil, and then I froze the remainder. That way they will be ready to fry as needed. I guess I’ll have my own dimness to thank the next time that I’m eating a blintz!

Cheese Blintzes
Makes 12-14 blintzes

Crepes

1 cup water
3/4 cup milk (I used whole)
3 eggs
5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/4 cup (6 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1 1/4 ounces) buckwheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

In a medium size bowl, whisk all of the ingredients together until smooth. Set aside for 1 hour, to relax gluten in the flours.

Heat a 9-inch, nonstick skillet over medium heat. Lightly grease the pan. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into the middle of the pan. Swirl and tilt the pan, making sure the bottom of the pan is evenly coated with batter. Cook until the crepe is opaque, and set. Flip the crepe out of the pan, uncooked side down, place a sheet of wax paper over each crepe to cool. Crepes can be made one day prior, an kept, well-wrapped in the refrigerator.

Cheese Filling

1 pound ricotta cheese (drained if necessary)
1 egg
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Whisk ingredients together until well-combined

Assembling the blintzes:

Use about 3 tablespoons of filling per crepe. Place filling oneinch from the edge of the crepe. Spread the filling out some, fold over the crepe, and tuck the edges in towards the center. Loosely continue rolling, like a burrito, folding the free edge under the blintz. Continue with the remaining crepes.

Cooking:

In a medium size frying pan, heat oil, and butter, until foam subsides. You should have a thin coating of fat in the skillet. Place the blintzes, seam side down, in the skillet. Fry to a golden brown, then carefully flip and continue cooking on the other side.

Remove from skillet, and serve with wedges of lemon.