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Plan Z Phase: This is a Z2 (ZReduction) recipe. For anyone wondering if Chris, VP Anger eats cake, the answer is not very often; and never a whole piece. Chris’s favorite flavor is lemon, so for over 30 years now I have made him a new lemon dessert every year for his birthday. Has there ever been a lemon cake? Sure. Has there been one since the inception of Plan Z? Nope.

This super-simple, light and dreamy dessert is easy enough for a weeknight treat and fancy enough to serve to a dinner party. As it’s portioned out here, it’s not a large dessert.  People compliment me all the time now on how I serve smaller desserts after a dinner party. They appreciate a nice, light treat instead of a big piece of cake.

Little kids will lap this up like an ice cream sundae!

Servings: Serves 4 or can easily be doubled for larger portions or 8 smaller portions like the one pictured

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of whole milk ricotta (find it by the cottage cheese)
• 2 – 4 tsp of Truvia. You put in the amount based on your tastes so start with less and see if that does it for you and your guests. You can always add more.
• 1 tsp of finely grated citrus zest. You can use lemon or orange. Use your mandolin or rasp to grate it very fine.
• 1 quart of ripe strawberries

Instructions:

In a medium bowl add the ricotta, the sweeteners and the zest. Mix with your electric mixer until fluffy. This will take less than a minute.

Spoon your mixture into serving dishes. I have antique champagne glasses. You can also find cute little bowls at Cost Plus or thrift stores.  The whole idea is for a smaller portion but fill the vessel nicely.

If you are not going to serve it right away, my trick is to cover the containers with little zip lock baggies. You can even re-use the baggies later.

When ready to serve, you’ll put on your compote.

To make the compote, clean and chop your strawberries into bite-sized chunks. You can save a few beautiful whole strawberries for garnish if you’d like. In a small bowl add the cut up strawberries and a dusting of Truvia. Leave the strawberries to macerate (soak up the sugar and juices) for 15-30 minutes.

To serve add the strawberry compote on top of your ricotta mixture. Voila! The perfect Plan Z birthday treat.

Enjoy!

Cheers,