A revolutionary Mother's Day brunch

Fun fact. Cafe Luxembourg, the chic and venerable French restaurant on New York’s Upper West Side, has the wrong name.

“It was supposed to be named after revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg, not Luxembourg, the blandest country in the world,” wrote Keith McNally in I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir.

Many years ago, Naomi and I ate brunch at the misspelled restaurant, which McNally co-founded in 1983. (He sold it to his ex-wife in 1992 and went on to open my dream restaurant, Balthazar).

We ordered the lemon ricotta pancakes.

They were cloud-like, like lemon tree blossoms in the afterlife, balanced with a tart-sweet fresh blueberry sauce.

Back in Los Angeles, when the next Mother’s Day rolled around, Naomi had one wish: lemon ricotta pancakes.

I found a recipe on a site called PintSizedBaker, substituted Meyer lemons from our tree out back and toned down the sugar.

It wasn’t special that I made Naomi brunch — a husband cooking Mother’s Day brunch is less of a big deal when he cooks every other meal all year round as well. But the lemon ricotta pancake ritual is special, reserved for very special occasions.

For one, they are fussy. Putting out bagels and lox takes a few seconds. Gathering the numerous ingredients for these pancakes, measuring, grating the rind, squeezing the lemon, beating the egg whites — and folding it all together and frying them before they deflate — it’s a matter of timing, and a labor of love.

Also, they’ve vanished from Cafe Luxembourg’s menu, replaced by buttermilk pancakes. In L.A., I don’t know who makes great ones.

And, the lemons themselves are special — there’s something about starting the day taking in their scent, releasing it into the air of the kitchen, bringing the garden to the table...

At some point our son Adi began making the lemon ricotta pancakes, and, when he is in town, the job is all his. I mean, she’s his mother, after all.

We put out lox, bagels and homemade sourdough, coffee and juice, and of course the pancakes and blueberry sauce.

Are the pancakes as good as what we had at Cafe Luxembourg? Yes they are.

Fun Fact #2: Rosa Luxemburg was an avid amateur botanist.

We know her as the brilliant Polish-Jewish revolutionary who (correctly) identified the rapacious maw of imperialism, (correctly) predicted the murderous authoritarianism of the Bolshevik Revolution, and who — naively — called for a workers revolution against exploitation.

Luxemburg spent a lot of time serving various prison sentences, and during all but the most brutal, she occupied herself collecting and cataloguing plant specimens, taking care of injured animals, or doing what gardening prison authorities allowed.

“Deep in my soul, in the piece of garden like this or in the field among the bumblebees and grasses, I feel more at home than at the political conference,” she wrote. “My deepest self belongs more to my fellow mousetits [Parus major] than to comrades.”

Alas, in 1919, after Luxemburg took part in an attempted overthrow, the government sent a right-wing paramilitary militia to arrest her. They shot her in the head and dumped her body in a river.

Makes you wonder, in some alternate world, what if Rosa Luxemburg spent most of her time tending her garden? What if she devoted her prodigious powers of persuasion to convince the proletariat to grow and eat healthy food and protect the environment that nurtures it? What if she raised children who loved to tend their own gardens, and cook and eat great food? What if?

That’s also revolutionary, no?

INGREDIENTS

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for coating the frying pan and serving

• 1 cup whole milk

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 3 large eggs, yolks and whites separated

• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

• 1 ½ tablespoons packed finely grated lemon zest (from about 3 to 4 medium lemons)

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2/3 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese

• Powdered sugar

  • Blueberry Sauce

    INSTRUCTIONS

• Place butter and milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until butter has melted; remove from heat and let cool slightly.

• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt; set aside.

• Place egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Whisk in a quarter of the milk-butter mixture (this will temper the eggs and prevent them from curdling), then whisk in the remaining milk-butter mixture until smooth.

• Add the reserved flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined (do not overmix); set aside.

• In a medium bowl, whisk egg whites to soft peaks (they should bend like soft-serve ice cream; make sure the bowl and whisk are perfectly clean with no traces of grease, or the whites will not whip properly). Halfway through whisking them, sprinkle in the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Using the rubber spatula, fold the whites into the reserved batter until just combined.

• Gently fold the ricotta into the batter, being careful not to break down the texture of the cheese (the batter will be lumpy and streaked with ricotta); set aside.

• Heat a large nonstick frying pan, griddle, or seasoned cast iron skillet over medium heat until hot, about 4 minutes. Test to see if the pan is hot enough by sprinkling a couple of drops of cold water in it: If the water bounces and sputters, the pan is ready to use.

• Lightly coat the pan’s surface with butter, then use a 1/4-cup measure to scoop the batter into the pan. Cook until bubbles form on top of the pancakes, about 4 to 5 minutes. Flip and cook the other side until the bottoms are golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes more. Repeat with the remaining batter. Serve immediately with powdered sugar and blueberry sauce.

Blueberry Sauce

INGREDIENTS

3 cups fresh blueberries

1 T. sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

First, taste the blueberries. If they are sweet, stick to a tablespoon of sugar. If they are tart, add more.

Put blueberries and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-high flame until the berries begin to pop and melt. You can speed the process by crushing them with a potato masher or heavy spoon. Bring to boil then lower heat and simmer until saucy but still fresh, about 10 minutes.

Let cool slightly. You can make ahead, let cool, cover and refrigerate for a thicker sauce.