Mocha Ricotta Pie with Strawberries

This pie is one of my absolute favorite desserts. It's in my top three of all time, right up there with almond butter thumbprints and salted caramel brownies.

What makes it so fabulous is the trifecta of a lightly sweetened, crunchy shortbread crust, a rich and creamy ricotta filling with chocolate, coffee, and a hint of lemon (yes, lemon!), and a topping of juicy strawberries. It reminds me of the amazing Southern-style chocolate pie I always used to eat at the now-defunct Marimont Cafeteria in Austin, Texas, but with a mature Italian twist and bright berries to lighten things up.

Really good dark chocolate and high quality, full-fat ricotta are important for this pie. (Good coffee won't hurt either, but I love my Café Bustelo.) I was so excited about having a tub of Narragansett Creamery ricotta in my fridge that I proceeded to completely forget I'd bought it to make zucchini lasagna, and dumped all of it into the filling for this pie.

Shepherd's Pie with Rutabaga

In my opinion, potatoes are very overrated.  They don't really taste that great unless they're fried or covered in cheese, which is cheating.  A great vegetable should taste delicious with less than that.

Enter the rutabaga.  You may have seen rutabagas hiding at the grocery store under the name "yellow turnips".  Although they're yellowish on the inside, on the outside they fade from white to light purple. They're much lower in calories and carbohydrates than potatoes, and also taste way better.  I would choose mashed rutabaga over mashed potatoes any day, and their lovely yellow color makes this shepherd's pie look even more inviting than the traditional version.

Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Pie (Gluten-free, No-bake)

This pie is so easy, and so good!  If you already have your caramel sauce made (try salted caramel, salted maple caramel, or even store-bought), there is no cooking required--just a few rounds of food processing.  And, in case you need another reason to make this, there's pumpkin involved!  There's also caramel, whipped cream, and a delicious two-ingredient crust.  The cheesecake layer is rich, but not overpowering--I think even people who don't love cheesecake will probably love this.  

The recipe has several components, but they are all easy to whip up in the food processor.  You don't even really need to wash it in between layers.  Also, it's so much fun to press the crust into the pan, smooth all these amazing things on top, swirl in some caramel, and sprinkle on a few pepitas.  It's almost as much fun to make this pie as it is to eat it!

I made this for two hungry podcasters, and they both loved it.  Even though Ben at first insisted he "didn't want a piece right now", he changed his tune as soon as he laid eyes on my slice.  Basically, this pie is irresistible!