Published in The Sanford Herald on December 5, 2012
Confidence is
not inspired by a surgeon who has to ask you to read the “fuzzy small words” in
your chart. Nor does one wish for an
English teacher who writes everything in texting shorthand. (LOL)
Along the same lines, you may not wish for a food columnist who
willingly admits having set her oven on fire, but I am afraid that is your lot
today, friends. I cannot share this
beloved recipe of mine without sharing the story of the Christmas it went
horribly wrong. The recipe is for
bacon-wrapped, ricotta-stuffed dates. The
word you are searching for here is swoon.
These can only be described as little bites of bacon-y heaven (which I
realize is a redundant statement for some).
Our flammable
tale begins with two fateful mistakes: one, using a baking sheet that was not
rimmed around all of the edges and two, thinking a silicone baking sheet would work
as well for bacon as it does for cookies.
I was making these in a hurry for a holiday party and decided that it
would save time to use a silicone mat, because perhaps it would help the bacon
to crisp completely without having to be turned. So, into the oven these little drops of
delight went, sitting atop that slippery silicone, sitting atop that un-rimmed
baking sheet. If you’ve spent any time
at all with bacon (and I dearly hope that you have), you know that grease is
just part of it. The silicone, rather
than helping cook the bacon evenly, provided a nonstick surface for that grease
to rapidly drip right off the edge of the sheet…and onto the hot element of the
oven. You guessed it, fire!
One might think that a silicone baking mat would be impervious to
fire. One would be wrong, y’all. After putting out said fire with a huge
amount of baking soda and a fair amount of flailing around, I finished those
flambéed dates in a hot skillet. People
at the party raved about them anyway! I
tasted a particular smokiness I knew was not just from the bacon, but they were
none the wiser. Each time I’ve served
these sweet, chewy dates, stuffed with creamy ricotta and enclosed in a crispy
bacon crust, people go wild for them. Go
ahead, trust your friendly fire-starting food columnist, and make these little
gems for holiday parties or as an appetizer for your Christmas dinner. You won’t regret it. Do keep a fire extinguisher nearby, just in
case.
Bacon-Wrapped Ricotta-Stuffed Dates
Makes 2 dozen
Ingredients:
1/3 cup ricotta
cheese
24 dates, pitted
by pushing a toothpick through center lengthwise and removing pit
6 strips of
bacon, cut into fourths widthwise
freshly cracked
black pepper
toothpicks, to
serve
Heat oven to 400
degrees. Mix ricotta with black pepper,
adjusting seasoning as desired. There’s
no need to add salt because of the saltiness of the bacon. Place ricotta in a food storage bag and snip
off a very small portion of a corner to make a piping bag. Fill dates with ricotta, then wrap in bacon,
placing seam-side down 1 inch apart on a rimmed
baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes, then
turn and bake for an additional 6 minutes, until bacon is crisp. Drain on paper towels. Serve immediately.
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