Italian Crepes | Crespelle con Ricotta e Marmellata di Limone
Thin, lace edged crespelle wrapped around sweetened ricotta and finished with a spoonful of bitter lemon marmalade. The batter rests, the ricotta drains, the pan is hot, and the plate is done in minutes.
Yield: 4 servings, 12 crepes of 8 inches (20 cm). Prep: 30 minutes. Batter rest: 1 hour. Ricotta draining: overnight. Cook: 30 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: dessert.
The Story
The word crespella comes from crespo, the old Italian adjective for something curled or wavy, and it describes the ruffled lace that forms at the rim of a properly cooked pancake. Thin pancakes have been cooked on hearth stones across Europe for centuries, and Italy claims its own long line of them. In Abruzzo the scrippelle of Teramo are rolled, sprinkled with pecorino and served in hot broth. In Florence, crespelle are filled with ricotta and spinach and baked under a blanket of besciamella. The sweet version in this recipe belongs to the same family, and it lives mostly in home kitchens rather than restaurants.
Ricotta is the natural filling because it is the cheese of the Italian countryside. It is made from the whey left after pecorino or cow's milk cheese is drawn off, heated again until the last proteins clump, and scooped out while it is still warm. Sheep ricotta from Lazio, Sardinia and Tuscany is richer and sweeter, and it is the one shepherds' families ate fresh with honey or a spoon of preserved fruit. Pancakes gave that simple habit a wrapper and turned it into a dessert that could be produced from a dairy shelf and a jar in the pantry.
Lemon supplies the jar. The groves of the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento and eastern Sicily have furnished Italian kitchens with fragrant, thick skinned lemons for generations, and the peel, with its bitterness and oils, was never wasted. Cooked slowly with sugar it becomes a marmalade that keeps for months, and a spoonful on a plate of ricotta is one of the oldest sweet and sour pairings in the southern repertoire.
The dish has no famous birthplace and no protected name, which is precisely why it survives. It is a Sunday breakfast, a Carnival sweet and a way to use the ricotta bought for something else, made the same way in thousands of kitchens with small variations in the marmalade and the size of the pan. Every family has an opinion about how thin is thin enough, and how much lemon is too much. Most agree on one thing, that the pancakes are the easy part and the patience around them is the recipe. The lesson of the dish is restraint: three humble components, each treated with care, will outdo a dessert with ten.
Ingredients
For the crepe batter
All purpose flour, 1 cup (125 g)
Whole milk, 1 1/4 cups (300 ml), plus a splash to adjust
Large eggs, 3
Granulated sugar, 1 tbsp (13 g)
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)
Unsalted butter, melted and cooled, 2 tbsp (28 g)
Finely grated lemon zest, from 1 unwaxed lemon, about 1 tbsp
Clarified butter for the pan, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
For the ricotta filling
Whole milk ricotta, sheep or cow, 1 lb (450 g) before draining
Powdered sugar, 1/2 cup (60 g)
Vanilla extract, 1 tsp (5 ml)
Finely grated lemon zest, from 1/2 unwaxed lemon
Fine sea salt, 1 small pinch
Cheesecloth, 2 layers of 12 inch (30 cm) squares, for draining
For the lemon marmalade
Unwaxed lemons, scrubbed, about 4 medium, 1 1/4 lb (570 g)
Granulated sugar, 2 1/4 cups (450 g)
Water, 2 cups (475 ml)
Fresh lemon juice, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Muslin square, 6 inch (15 cm), to hold the lemon seeds
For finishing
Unsalted butter for warming, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Powdered sugar for dusting, 1 tbsp (8 g)
Hot water to loosen the marmalade, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Candied peel strips lifted from the marmalade, 12, for garnish
Parchment paper, 1 sheet, for storing spare crepes
Preparation
Step 1: Make the lemon marmalade the day before
Slice the scrubbed lemons into rounds 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick, remove every seed and tie the seeds in muslin, since they carry the pectin. Simmer the slices, the muslin and the water uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes until the peel is completely tender. Add the sugar and lemon juice, stir until dissolved, then boil hard to 220°F (105°C), about 12 to 20 minutes. Discard the muslin, jar the marmalade and let it set overnight. It should fall from the spoon in a slow, thick sheet, with the peel glossy and translucent.
Step 2: Whisk the batter and rest it
Whisk the eggs with the sugar and salt, add half the milk, then all the flour at once, and whisk until smooth. Adding the flour to a thin liquid prevents lumps. Stir in the remaining milk, the melted butter and the zest. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, and ideally 2.
Step 3: Drain the ricotta
Line a sieve with two layers of cheesecloth, set it over a bowl, tip in the ricotta and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. A pound of ricotta will lose 3 to 5 fluid ounces (90 to 150 ml) of whey, and sheep ricotta rather less. The curd should hold the mark of a spoon and not slump back.
Step 4: Sieve and sweeten the ricotta
Press the drained ricotta through a fine mesh sieve in small batches. Fold in the powdered sugar, vanilla, zest and salt with a spatula. It should taste sweet but not sugary, because the marmalade adds more. A blender is no substitute, since it whips air into the curd instead of breaking the grain. Keep it cold until the crepes are cooked.
Step 5: Heat the pan and cook the test crepe
Set an 8 inch (20 cm) crepe pan over medium heat for three minutes. Brush it with clarified butter, ladle in the batter and swirl. Expect to discard this first crepe. A correct pan sets the batter in two seconds and colours it in pale freckles.
Step 6: Cook and stack the crepes
Pour about 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of batter into the pan, roll your wrist so it runs to the edge, and cook for 45 to 60 seconds until the surface looks dry. Turn and cook the second side for 20 to 30 seconds. Stack the crepes directly on one plate so they steam gently and stay pliable.
Step 7: Fill and fold
Lay a crepe with its paler side up. Spread a scant 2 tablespoons of ricotta cream over the lower third, add a teaspoon of marmalade in a line, then fold in half and in half again. Use the paler second side as the inside, so the freckled side is what the guest sees. Do not overfill, or the ricotta will escape at the ends.
Step 8: Warm them through in butter
Melt the butter in a wide skillet over medium low heat. Lay in the folded crepes and warm them about 90 seconds per side until lightly coloured. For twelve at once, use a buttered dish in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 6 to 8 minutes.
Step 9: Loosen the marmalade and finish
Warm 3 tablespoons of marmalade with the hot water until glossy and pourable. Spoon it over the crepes, dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately.
Plating
Serve on warm plates, since a cold plate ruins a thin crepe within a minute. Set three folded crepes overlapping slightly, freckled side up, and pour the loosened marmalade in a ribbon that runs across the fold and pools on the porcelain rather than covering every surface. Keep the marmalade off the very edge of the rim, where it would run when the plate is carried.
Dust the powdered sugar last through a fine sieve, held high so it falls evenly. A few thin strips of the candied peel from the marmalade make a natural garnish. A small spoon of plain ricotta beside the crepes adds a cool contrast for a more formal dessert. Serve immediately, with a fork and a small knife.
Professional Technique
The technique that decides this dish is the rest of the batter. Whisking flour into liquid develops a little gluten, and a batter used at once gives crepes that are gummy and elastic, and that shrink back from the edge of the pan as they cook. In the refrigerator the flour hydrates fully, the starch grains swell and the gluten network relaxes, so the finished crepe is tender and stays flat and wide. One hour is the minimum.
The rest also changes the consistency. Flour keeps absorbing milk as it sits, so a batter that poured like cream when mixed will be closer to double cream after an hour. Check it with a ladle before cooking. It should run off in a thin, continuous ribbon. If it drops in thick clumps, whisk in a splash of milk, a tablespoon at a time, until the ribbon returns.
The first crepe is always thrown away, and for good reason. Its job is to season the pan, showing whether the heat is right and how much fat the surface really wants. The pan drinks the first film of butter and the metal is not yet even in temperature, so the crepe comes out patchy or stuck. Cook it, judge it, and then start the real batch.
Fat is controlled with a pastry brush and not with repeated pieces of butter. Brush a very thin film of clarified butter across the pan for the first two crepes, then only every second or third. Butter added each time pools in the pan, fries the batter instead of setting it, and gives thick, greasy, spotty crepes. A brushed film is thin enough that the batter grips it, spreads evenly and forms the fine lacy pattern.
Texture and Moisture Control
The plate has three textures to protect: a supple crepe, a cool and creamy filling, and a marmalade that runs without soaking. Each depends on managing water. Ricotta sits in its own whey, and undrained curd releases that liquid the moment it meets warm pancake, so the inside turns to paste. Draining overnight and sieving remove the excess water and break the grain into a smooth cream.
The crepes must stay damp enough to fold. Stacking them while warm traps steam between the layers, and that moisture keeps each one flexible. Spread out on a rack they dry at the edges and crack the moment they are folded. If they must wait, cover the stack with a cloth. Never refrigerate them uncovered.
Temperature keeps the filling stable. Sweetened ricotta is kept cold until assembly, and the crepes are only warmed through, never cooked again, so the cheese loosens without weeping. A hot pan or a long stay in the oven turns the curd watery and squeezes it out at the ends. The marmalade is loosened with hot water at the last moment because its pectin sets stiff as it cools, and a loose sauce runs over the crepe without seeping into it.
Professional Mise en Place
Equipment and tools
8 inch (20 cm) crepe pan or nonstick skillet with low sloping sides
Fine mesh sieve, rubber spatula and cheesecloth
Wide preserving pan and probe thermometer
Ladle holding about 3 tablespoons (45 ml)
Thin flexible palette knife for turning
Small fine sieve for the powdered sugar, and a cloth to cover the stack
Prepared ahead
Marmalade jarred and set the day before
Ricotta drained overnight, then sieved and sweetened on the day
Batter rested for at least 1 hour and whisked before use
Clarified butter melted beside the stove with a pastry brush
Plates warming in a low oven
Muslin bundle and jars sterilised and dry before the marmalade is potted
Service setup
Cooked crepes stacked under a cloth
Ricotta cream cold and covered until filling
Marmalade loosened only at the last minute
Skillet or 350°F (175°C) oven ready for warming
Powdered sugar in a fine sieve, the last thing to touch the plate
Serving fork, small knife and a warm spoon for the marmalade
Chef Tips
Weigh the flour rather than scooping it, since a packed cup can add a fifth more flour and give a thick batter. Use unwaxed lemons for both zest and marmalade, and scrub them well. Fill the crepes while the ricotta is still cold and the pancakes are warm, because the contrast keeps the cream from loosening.
Cook a stack of fifteen or so rather than exactly twelve, so that torn or uneven ones can be eaten by the cook. Sheep ricotta gives a sweeter and richer result than cow's milk, but drain it a little longer. Taste the marmalade before assembly. If it is too sweet, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to the loosening water and it will balance the plate.
Rest the finished stack of crepes for five minutes before filling. It lets the steam settle and the surface dry a little, so the ricotta does not slide. Keep a small bowl of hot water beside the stove to warm the spoon for the marmalade, which then runs cleanly and does not drag.
Common Mistakes
Skipping the rest. A batter used straight away gives crepes that are gummy and pull back from the edge. Give it at least an hour in the refrigerator.
Adding butter every time. Extra fat pools in the pan and fries the crepe. Brush a thin film and top up only every second or third crepe.
Using undrained ricotta. Whey runs out during folding and turns the crepe soggy. Drain overnight and sieve.
Overfilling. The ricotta has nowhere to go and is pushed out at the ends during warming. Use a scant 2 tablespoons.
Using the pan too cool. A cool pan soaks the batter instead of setting it, giving pale, greasy and rubbery crepes. Preheat for three full minutes and adjust with the first crepe.
Buying jam and skipping the bitterness. A smooth sweet jam flattens the plate. Look for a marmalade with peel and real acidity, so the ricotta has something sharp to lean against.
Serving them late. Thin crepes stiffen and the marmalade sets within minutes. Warm, fill and serve straight away, on hot plates.
Wine Pairing
Moscato d'Asti DOCG: A gently sparkling, low alcohol wine with peach and orange blossom aromas. Its light sweetness matches the ricotta cream, and its fine bubbles refresh the palate after the butter and the bitter lemon peel. At roughly 5 percent alcohol it is the gentlest option for a long weekend brunch, and it should be served well chilled.
Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG: Choose an Extra Dry bottling with a little residual sugar. Its bright acidity and green apple fruit cut through the milk fat, and the froth lifts the lemon zest. It is the lightest match on this list, and the best for a breakfast service, served well chilled at about 43°F (6°C). The pairing works because the wine is almost as light as the crepe, and neither overpowers the other. A glass poured before the plate arrives also works as an aperitivo.
Recioto di Soave DOCG: A sweet wine from dried Garganega grapes, with almond, honey and candied citrus. It echoes the marmalade and the vanilla in the filling. Its acidity keeps the sweetness in check, so the pairing feels rich but not heavy. Serve it lightly chilled, and expect the almond note to run alongside the lemon zest.
Malvasia delle Lipari DOC: An amber wine of apricot, dried fig and orange peel, grown on volcanic islands. Its sweetness meets the marmalade on equal terms, and a firm saline finish stops the dessert from tasting cloying. Serve it cool in small glasses, and pour only a finger of it, since the wine is dense and concentrated. It is the pairing to choose when the dessert closes a formal dinner, and the marmalade is served generously.
Storage & Reheating
Store the components separately. The marmalade keeps in a sealed jar for 3 months in the refrigerator, and the ricotta cream for 2 days in an airtight container. Cooked and unfilled crepes keep 2 days refrigerated, stacked between sheets of parchment and wrapped tightly.
Filled crepes can be frozen for 1 month in a single layer, then wrapped. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and warm them in a buttered dish at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 12 minutes, covered with foil so the surface does not dry out. Loosen fresh marmalade only when serving. Do not freeze the ricotta cream on its own, since the curd turns grainy and weeps when thawed. The batter itself keeps 24 hours covered in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 servings of 3 filled crepes each:
Calories: 545 kcal
Total Fat: 22 g
Saturated Fat: 12 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Unsaturated Fat: 8.5 g
Cholesterol: 195 mg
Sodium: 250 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 68 g
Fiber: 2 g
Total Sugars: 42 g
Added Sugars: 34 g
Protein: 21 g
Lactose: 7 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, vitamin A, vitamin B12, riboflavin, selenium, vitamin C
These figures are estimates and vary with the ricotta and how sparingly the marmalade is used.
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