I don’t like traditional breakfast food. The genre’s limitations — eggs, flour, milk, syrup — bore me. I don’t understand why you have to wait until lunch to start having a decent meal. One of my fondest childhood memories is of my mother frying up burgers before school; a taste that has always been more appealing to me than a plain old waffle.

There are a few exceptions, of course. I like a pancake now and then slathered with peanut butter and Karo syrup. And I like pancakes stuffed with ricotta cheese. I’ve had them in two quite different places: Bill’s in the Darlinghurst neighborhood in Syndey, and Carmen’s Country Kitchen in South Philadelphia. Bill and Carmen couldn’t be more different from one another. Bill’s is the epitome of Sydney’s minimal chic aesthetic with blond woods, whitewashed walls and understatedly well-dressed patrons. Carmen’s is decorated with an empty dog house, a mannequin, and country knick-knacks that are half-homey, half-bawdy (like the sign reading “Carmen puts the c**t back in country”). Despite their differences, their cakes have the same effect on this bored-of-breakfast diner.

Ready

• 1 ⅓c ricotta
• ¾c milk
• 4 eggs separated into yolks and whites
• 1c plain flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• salt
• butter
• powdered sugar

Set

• mixing bowl
• sieve
• medium bowl
• whisk
• folding spoon
• frying pan
• ladle
• spatula

Go

1. Let every cold ingredient come to room temperature before you combine the ricotta, milk and egg yolks in the mixing bowl.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl and stir.
3. Whip egg whites with the whisk in the medium bowl until you can pinch white peaks.
4. Fold them into the ricotta batter.
5. Place the frying pan over medium heat and drop in a bit of butter once the pan is warm. When this has melted, ladle in the pancake mixture. You should be able to get three pancakes per batch.
6. Before serving, dust with the sugar.