Don't Just Go Nots- Go Bananas!

Fritelle Dolce di Ricotta con Banane, Cannella, Noce & Uvetta

Ricotta Pancakes with Banana, Cinnamon, Walnuts & Raisins

It's Sunday morning and t's dull and grey outside... and that means that it's time to crack an egg and get cracking making some pancakes! The best way to start any day smiling!

It never takes much... neither ingredients, nor time, to whip up some kind of pancake or other- you just take a look at what you have and you improvise! At least- that's the way I do it!

The other thing that can happen, come the end of the week- is that you will tend to have a banana or two that have become really ripe. Not too far gone, but just on the verge of being too sweet to simply bite into "just so"... which makes them absolutely perfect for turning them into fluffy and juicy pancakes! Means you can skip a load of sugar for example- and that can only be a good thing!

To make 6 little pancakes, I needed 1 ripe banana, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of fresh ricotta, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 handful of raisins, a few walnuts, a pinch of salt, a half teaspoon of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and some honey or maple syrup if you prefer to drizzle over them when they were finished.

I find that the ripe banana had plenty of sweetness and I needed not add any extra sugar- for my taste. I prefer to leave them just mildly sweet and then add some honey at the end... but you can of course always make yours sweeter if you so wish.

I began by mashing 2/3rds of the banana and mixing this together with the 2 tablespoons each of ricotta and flour, the egg yolk, baking powder and yes- a little pinch of salt.

I simply stirred these together with a fork until they became a firm, sticky batter.

I then whisked the egg white to stiff peaks and gently folded it in, until the mixture became smooth and soft.

Next, set aside a couple of slices of banana to use later as decoration and dice the rest up, then add it into the batter along with the raisins and chopped walnuts.

Simply fold together so that you have a nice, evenly mixed batter- and get ready to fry!

Fry on a medium heat, so that the batter has time to cook all the way through nicely, as these are a little thicker than regular pancakes. I made mine simply 1 heaped teaspoon of batter in size- you can make them larger if you want, but I found these smaller ones to be perfect.

Once you begin to see air bubbles rising to the surface and can see the edges of the pancakes becoming brown, carefully lift them over and cook from the other side for a further 2-3 minutes... and then... plate them up and enjoy!

Just a couple of slices of banana and walnuts and already they look much, much nicer...

But with some lovely honey to make them super-delicious, they look even prettier still!

Good enough to eat!