We’re pretty fond of ricotta around here, and also pretty fond of pancakes! I’m not sure why I haven’t put them together until now, but these are worth the wait. They’re incredibly light and tender and creamy, clearly based on ricotta, but with enough bite to be a pancake, and barely sweet. I much prefer to keep the sweetness for the toppings!

Some recipes out there have quite a bit of flour and milk, so they’re more like a pancake with a touch of ricotta. These ones are almost closer to a fritter than a pancake, with separated eggs and beaten whites, and very little flour, but you fry them in a pan with only a hint of butter, and serve for breakfast with berries, so I’m happy to stick to pancakes as a description I think.

Even though you separate the eggs, everything apart from the egg whites is simply stirred together in one bowl, so they’re still a lovely simple weekend breakfast. Just fold the whites in gently, and don’t worry about remaining streaks in the batter.

I should also add, that these can very easily be made gluten free by substituting any gluten free flour for the small amount of flour in the recipe.

These are lovely with a few berries added to the batter once you put in the pan. Top with extra berries, cream, or yoghurt, and they are also lovely with jam or marmalade. For a double ricotta hit, they’re shown above with berry ricotta mousse. They are one of the few pancakes I wouldn’t serve with syrup.

Ricotta pancakes

• 250g full fat fresh ricotta
• 3 eggs
• 40g sugar
• zest of one lemon
• 20g unsalted butter, melted
• 50g plain (or gluten-free) flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• a little milk
• blueberries or raspberries for pancakes, and extra to serve (optional)

Cream together ricotta, egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest if using, and melted butter (I use the pan I’m going to fry in to melt it, then I already have the pan coated for frying!). Fold in flour with a spatula. Loosen the batter with a little milk if needed to create a soft sticky mixture. Beat egg whites until soft peaks, and fold gently into the batter.

Heat a cast iron or non-stick pan over medium low heat. If not already coated with butter, add a little. Drop in spoonfuls of batter – I fry 3-4 at a time – and top with a few blueberries or raspberries if using. Cook for about 4 minutes, until golden brown, before turning and cooking a couple of minutes on the other side.

Serve with extra berries, and a spoonful of ricotta mousse if you really want to go to town on the ricotta.

Makes about 10 small pancakes