Orange Chocolate Ricotta Pie

Mid-November. Twelve weeks post-surgery. I went to my final follow-up Tuesday. Dr. Watt said: it's done. She said: I'll see you back in five years for a check, or sooner if anything goes wrong. She said: don't do anything stupid in the next month. I said: yes ma'am. Hannah said: he is incorrigible. Dr. Watt laughed and signed me out.

The freedom of the cleared shoulder. I drove home alone, which I had not done in three months. The freedom of the cleared right hand. I am not back to full capacity. I will work toward full capacity over the next month. But the recovery is over. The body is healing into its new normal. The new normal will be better than the old normal because the joint is now properly anchored. I should have done this five years ago. I am sixteen weeks late on a procedure that I should have done at fifty. I am fifty-four. The body is a machine that asks for maintenance and that gets it when it gets it, and the giving and the getting do not always match the timeline you would prefer.

Thanksgiving week. We're doing it small again — me, Hannah, Terry, Caleb, Miriam. Lily and Ben to Oklahoma City for Ben's family. Luna to Cole's family. Kai and Danielle and Tommy in Albuquerque. River and Lucia at OSU finals. Caleb is bringing Miriam. Miriam is bringing a turkey she's smoking herself — she's never smoked a turkey before but she has been studying.

Wednesday I made the dressing. Bean-bread dressing this year — a thing I've been wanting to do for a while, replacing the cornbread base with bean bread. The result was deeper, nuttier, with a richer texture. I made the cranberry sauce from frozen cranberries and orange peel. Hannah did the pies — a pumpkin and a pecan, the two she's been making for thirty years.

Thursday Miriam's turkey arrived in a cooler. It was perfect. She had brined it for two days, smoked it at 250 over apple wood for five hours, finished it in the oven for the last twenty minutes. The skin was bronzed. The meat was juicy. Terry ate. She said: you cook good, Miriam. Miriam said: thank you, Mrs. Whitehawk. Terry said: call me Terry. The kitchen was quiet for a second. Terry said: she's family. She said it to all of us. Caleb teared up. Miriam teared up. Hannah teared up. I teared up.

Hannah’s pies have been a constant for thirty years — the pumpkin and the pecan appearing on the table the way the calendar itself appears, reliable and right. This year, cleared and healing and sitting at a table that felt fuller than the headcount suggested, I kept thinking about what it would mean to add something new alongside the classics — not to replace them, but to mark the year. This Orange Chocolate Ricotta Pie is that addition: rich and layered, a little unexpected, the kind of thing you bring to a table when the table has earned it.

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min (plus chilling) | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
2 cups whole-milk ricotta cheese
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon orange zest (from 1 large orange)
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1 tablespoon heavy cream (for ganache drizzle)

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 350°F. Place the unbaked pie shell in a 9-inch pie dish and crimp the edges. Set aside.
Make the filling. In a large bowl, whisk together the ricotta, sugar, eggs, orange zest, orange juice, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt until smooth and well combined.
Add chocolate. Fold 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips into the ricotta filling, reserving the remaining 1/4 cup for the ganache drizzle.
Fill and bake. Pour the filling into the prepared pie shell. Bake on the center rack for 40–45 minutes, until the filling is just set at the edges but still has a slight wobble in the very center. A toothpick inserted 2 inches from the edge should come out clean.
Cool completely. Remove the pie from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill for a minimum of 2 hours before serving (overnight is ideal).
Make the ganache drizzle. When ready to serve, combine the reserved 1/4 cup chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon heavy cream in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 20-second bursts, stirring between each, until smooth. Drizzle over the chilled pie.
Serve. Slice and serve cold or at cool room temperature. Garnish with additional orange zest if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Orange Chocolate Ricotta Pie — The Pie Shelf That Holds a Whole Year