To zucchini or not to zucchini?

I am faced with a conundrum. A query, a question an insurmountable mountain of doubt and indecision. Because I love love LOVE zucchini flowers, predictably stuffed with goat curd and fried in a crispy coating, a classic combination that will never grow naff or tired in my eyes. But if I eat them now I won't experience the satisfaction of a full-grown, adult-sized zucchini. No prize winning, beribboned behemoths to show at the fair. No green-tinged frittata or ratatouille at the height of summer. Nothing with which to assuage my latent penis-envy. And besides, it feels a little bit like eating a baby, especially when you've witnessed the tender little shoots first poke their soft little heads through the soil. You feel like a cannibal midwife, your hideous gaping maw salivating over succulent flesh. Nightmarish stuff! 

So I daily count my intended victims, waiting for the day they number enough for a meal. And they sleep innocent of my plotting, beneath their shady leaves, on their cosy beds of mulch. 

Happily, should I hesitate long enough, the decision will be taken out of my hands as my vulnerable little pups enter adulthood. Like Humbert Humbert losing his lust for a grown up Lolita, suddenly a delectable flower will be nothing more than soggy green veg.

An oven full of naughty

Call me crazy, but at the moment I am experimenting with a diet free of sugar, wheat and dairy. So what should I choose to make but cheesecake? It could have been worse, I was contemplating tiramisu and I'm off coffee as well. Why exactly I should choose to restrict my diet so aggressively is anyone's guess. Perhaps a need for order and control in a seemingly chaotic and violently random universe. Anyone else feel an overwhelming need to organise their underwear draw? OCD aside, an occasional descent into loss of control is healthy and normal, that's why nothing could stop me from licking the bowl to my heart's content.

This cheesecake is of the baked variety and the ricotta gives it an unexpected lightness. It is not too sweet and the salted butter in the crumbly biscuit base adds to the slightly savoury quality. I am serving it with sliced strawberries macerated for about an hour in balsamic vinegar and a little sugar. Stopping at just once slice is sure to be a challenge, that's why I'm getting the damn thing out of the house as quickly as possible. 

Baked Ricotta Cheesecake

Recipe adapted from Breakfast Lunch Tea, Rose Bakery

butter, for greasing

800g ricotta

200g cream cheese

2/3 cup caster sugar

grated zest and juice 2 lemons

pinch ground cinnamon

5 eggs

1 egg yolk

200ml pouring cream

180g digestive biscuits

60g melted butter

pinch ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180°C

Butter a 25cm springform tin and line with baking paper on bottom and sides.

To make the base process biscuits, butter and cinnamon in a food processor until crumbs. Press onto base of tin.

Mix ingredients for filling together in the following order, mixing well after each addition: cheeses, sugar, lemon zest and juice, cinnamon, eggs and yolk, cream and flour. 

Pour into tin over biscuit base. Bake about 45mins or until just set, not browned but just beginning to puff up. Remove from oven and cool in tin before taking out.