Sweet Puttanesca Pancakes

Most people associate puttanesca with a spicy sauce of tomatoes, olives, peppers and such. And rightly so, as those are typical ingredients in an Italian puttanesca sauce. But, did you know puttanesca actually means "in the style of a prostitute"—she's been too busy fucking so she didn't have time to really put together a fancy, composed meal and so she tossed in a bunch of random stuff she happened to have around.

Well, I've been wanting to make healther pancakes for my kid, so that's basically what I did this morning—and actually how I cook alot of the time. For these pancakes, I didn't use tomato, olives or peppers, of course.

I used:

• 1/2 c rolled oats
• 1/4 c whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c white flour
• tsp or so baking powder
• dash of cinnamon
• TB creme fraiche
• couple TBS yogurt
• a little less than 1/3 c of egg whites (or small egg/egg white, or 1/2 egg, the point is some binding protein-like goop)
  
• splash of skim milk, to desired consistency
  
• 1/4 smashed up ripe banana
• honey to taste
  
• handful of walnuts, mashed up pretty good
• chocolate chips

(This recipe makes about six 5-inch diameter—or so—pancakes.)

So, you mix the first four dry ingredients listed, and set aside. You may want to run this through a food processor, depending on how textured you think you'd like your oats in the pancakes. Then mix the wet as listed, up to, but not including the the milk. Then you mix the wet and dry. After that, you add milk little by little til you get a good consistency.

Hopefully you will remember making pancakes from the box mix, like I did, and you can remember the consistency. It's nice if you can pour it, but also OK to plop the batter on the buttered griddle or pan and gently spread. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

After you have the basic wet and dry mixed, you can stir in your honey to taste, your mashed banana, walnut paste, chocolate chips or whatever else you want.

Now, heat up a pan or griddle to medium high. (I just use a nonstick pan and make them one by one, keeping each hot under a plate til they're all ready, layering each pancake with a pat of butter.) Butter or oil the pan/griddle a bit and pour or spoon your batter. When you see the pancake bubbling, you can gently flip it. When I am making pancakes, since I make them one by one, I have to turn down the heat about halfway through. You just figure it out and pay attention. It will all work out!

That's how I cook, throwing things together and experimenting. Sometimes its good and sometimes it's not.

I know these pancakes were good (I tasted them) but, truly, 'cause my kid ate them right up!