I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me before, but ricotta’s a great ingredient to have on hand. One small tub came to the rescue twice in this past week and it’s got me thinking I should add ricotta to my grocery cart most every week.

Friday night we were joining some friends for a relaxed evening of good food and games. It was a busy day around here, but I wanted to contribute something. I’d made a trip to Big John’s PFI that morning stocking up on dried spices, great cheese, frozen tartlet shells. And while there, just because I could, I picked up a couple sheets of their wonderful puff pastry. I had a chunk of great parmigiano-reggiano at home. A tomato sitting in the countertop basket. I picked up some ricotta at the store and grabbed a few handfuls of herbs (parsley, thyme, chives) from the garden.

In (almost) no time flat, I had this delicious tomato tart going into the oven. All it took was mincing the herbs and stirring them into the ricotta with 2 or 3 cloves of finely grated garlic (Microplaned, to be specific). Didn’t even bother using a bowl, just stirred it all together in the ricotta container. Added a good pinch each of salt and pepper.

I spread that herbed ricotta over the pastry (using about 2/3 of the container), topped it with thin slices of tomato and sprinkled the grated parm over all. Baked at 400 degrees until nicely browned and puffed around the edges. Don’t be tempted to under-bake this, the puff takes a good dose of heat to cook, particularly in the center. Took maybe 25 or 30 minutes. Friends gobbled it up that night, cut into squares for easy finger-food eating.

So that remaining 1/3 of the ricotta was still in the fridge last night. As was a thawed packet of chicken thighs, one of those gotta-have-on-hand items we pick up on Costco trips and keep in the freezer downstairs. I spooned the remaining ricotta under the skin of those thighs, set them in a baking dish on top of thinly sliced onion and baked them at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. Juicy, flavorful and slightly elegant despite the mere 5 minutes it took to assemble the dish.

The herb-garlic combo was a clear winner and surely I can find other uses for that handy helper. I’ll have to play around with some other flavorings as well, maybe smoked paprika? Caramelized onion? Chopped toasted hazelnuts? No telling where that little tub of ricotta can take me!