Luscious, Unbelievable Beets and Ricotta

I’ve always loved beets: their color, a magenta that still seems unnatural every time I see it; their texture, tender and meaty; their flavor, bright, earthy and fruity. As a beet fan, it doesn’t take much to convince me that something with roasted beets in it is going to be delicious.

But because I enjoy them au naturel, I don’t usually do much to dress them up. I’ll generally roast them (or buy them already prepared), slice them and throw them on a salad or just eat them as a side with some salt and pepper.  So I somehow never thought to chop them, mix them up with ricotta cheese of all things, and stuff them into pasta. Why complicate something that’s so good when it’s simple? Because it’s ungodly good, that’s why.

That’s what I found out last weekend, when my friend Emma from Follows The Sun visited. She brought along this recipe for Casunsiei (Beet and Ricotta ravioli), which reminded her of a formative summer she spent interning at the restaurant that is famous for them.

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Sweet and Spicy Morocco-inspired Tomato Sauce

After spending a weekend in a place even colder than New York, I really can’t help but dream of warmer places. Maybe it’s just me, but nothing warms me up like the deep seductive flavors of the Mediterranean. Thinking of food that even hints of places like Morocco seems to usher in a premature summer. At least for a moment. I think that my imagination is one of the only things getting me through this bitterly cold winter.

I was introduced to this dish by my host mom in France. She would let it stew in a makeshift tajine, with pieces of chicken folded into the sauce to soak up all the flavors. The scent of cinnamon, honey and tomato would waft warmly through the house. It was the perfect way to end a blustery Parisian day. We would eat it ladled over a mound of couscous, or just sop up the sauce with bread, licking it off the chicken and our fingers.

Since then, I’ve made a lot of changes to this recipe. Sometimes I add slivered almonds, I almost always add spicy roasted chickpeas, and I’ve even toyed with swapping out eggs for chicken for a shakshuka inspired dish. I usually have rice around more often than couscous, so I pour it over rice instead. Like many tomato sauces, this one is quite versatile, so try it and enjoy it any way you like.

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