Nigel's Fruit Pancakes

My son was watching Nigel Slater's Simple Supers (Series 2) on Saturday morning. I was pottering around and happened to catch the part when he's in a couple's wonderful garden where they grow all their own fruit and veg. They pick some strawberries, currants, raspberries and blueberries and Nigel Slater whips up a delicious fruit pancake with ricotta on a portable stove, right there in the garden!

I couldn't find the exact recipe on the BBC website but I did find a "Blueberry Ricotta Pancake Recipe" on the Guardian website which is very similar but doesn't contain any "Damson Gin". The recipe serves 4 and I only needed enough for 2 people...as usual I didn't have some ingredients but did have alternatives so I came up with my own version of the recipe which you can find below. I have to warn you though...these pancakes are totally delicious!

Fat Fruity Pancakes with a Punch

Serves 2 (makes approx 4 x 12cm pancakes)

Ingredients:

175g ricotta cheese

2 tbsp caster sugar

2 medium eggs (separate the yolks & whites)

zest of half a lemon

1 tbsp melted butter

40g plain flour

75g soft fruit (I used equal quantities of fresh raspberries and blueberries)

1 shot of blackberry vodka or any fruit infused spirit (Nigel uses damson gin) - this is optional of course but does give these pancakes a little something extra

Icing sugar for dusting

Method:

• Melt the butter in a small pan and take off the heat.
• Mix the ricotta, sugar, egg yolks, blackberry vodka and lemon zest in a large bowl.
• Stir in the butter and fold in the sifted flour.
• Whisk the egg whites until stiff and then carefully fold into the batter, try to retain as many of the air bubbles as possible since these will make your pancakes light and fluffy!
• Now add half the fruit, again, being careful not to knock out too much air from your batter.
• Heat a frying pan coated with a little butter to a medium low heat.
• Use a heaped tablespoon of batter for each pancake. I managed to fit 4 in the pan.
• Once they are cooked on the bottom, you can either flip them over carefully with a spatula, or put the whole pan (minus the handle of course) under a preheated grill to cook the top as you would with a Spanish omelette.
• When they are cooked through and golden on top, transfer the pancakes to a plate, sprinkle with the remaining fruit and dust with icing sugar...you can even add an extra drizzle of blackberry vodka if you are feeling racy!