By Bob Townsend

For the AJC

At Atlanta’s La Pietra Cucina, chef Bruce Logue focuses on seasonal and organic ingredients and what he calls the “handmade aspects” of Italian cuisine.

Since Logue landed at the Midtown restaurant in 2008, he’s built a reputation for some of the best Italian cooking in the city — though he admits that’s a surprising achievement for an Atlanta native of Scots-Irish descent.

After culinary school in Vermont, Logue moved to Boston and worked at several well-regarded contemporary Italian and modern French restaurants, including Briccio and Radius.

But his experiences in the kitchen at Mario Batali’s Babbo in New York City convinced him of his calling.

“I went to New York thinking I just wanted to work in a great kitchen,” Logue said. “But I fell in love with the idea of what Mario does and how he does it.

“He’s cooking in a pair of shorts and orange clogs and he’s making great food without all the fuss. My personality fit with that.”

Logue’s other major influence was time spent in Italy, where he attended a slow food Italian cooking school and became more familiar with regional Italian cuisine.

“I really haven’t looked back,” Logue said. “I learned about traditional Italian food in Italy, but I also saw some of the more modern stuff that’s happening there now with ingredient-driven, chef-driven ideas.”

Expressing his vision for La Pietra Cucina, Logue said it’s all about crafting dishes from the sources and ingredients up.

“That’s what I learned from the Italians I worked with. The handmade aspects of Italian cooking are the cornerstones. The craftsmanship of cured meats, pasta, bread, cheese — that’s Italian cooking.”

One of Logue’s handmade favorites is buttery whole milk ricotta, a simple staple he makes every day and uses in myriad ways in the restaurant.

For an easy appetizer, he mixes the fresh curd with some cream and salt, tops it with olive oil and oregano, and serves it with prosciutto di Parma, spicy house-made pineapple mostarda and crispy flatbread.

In summer, Logue likes to blend the ricotta with herbs or greens, such as parsley or chard, as a filling for soft ravioli, topped with a bright, creamy sauce of local heirloom tomatoes and cultured butter.

For dessert, he creams the ricotta with butter and sugar to create a decadently rich pound cake, drizzled with crème fraîche icing and served with seasonal berries.

“Ricotta pairs with anything,” Logue said. “Making fresh ricotta is really easy, and the payoff in flavor and refinement is so much better than what you could buy.”\

Ricotta Pound Cake 
With Crème Fraîche Icing and Berries

Hands on: 45 minutes

Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes, including time for baking and cooling Makes: 6 mini bundt cakes

This rich ricotta pound cake is baked in mini bundt cake pans, available at Michaels craft stores or Cook’s Warehouse. Fill the centers with seasonal berries to make a sweet-tart dessert worthy of summer.

For the pound cake:

Mini fluted mold pan or 6 mini bundt pans

½ cup softened butter, plus extra for greasing baking pans

1 cup homemade ricotta pressed through a mesh strainer or crumbled by hand

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour, plus extra for baking pans

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

For the Crème Fraîche Icing:

1 cup water

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

½ cup crème fraîche

For the berries:

½ cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup fresh huckleberries or blueberries

To make the pound cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bundt pans with butter as needed and dust with flour. Pour out excess flour.

In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter, ricotta, sugar and vanilla with a pastry blender or hand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time and mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add flour, baking powder and salt to the bowl and use a whisk or hand mixer to incorporate until smooth.

Fill each bundt pan half-full and bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake 5 to 10 minutes more, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

To make the icing: In a medium saucepan, heat the water to a simmer. Whisk in the powdered sugar and lemon juice and stir until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and whisk in the crème fraîche. Allow to cool to room temperature.

To make the berries: In a medium saucepan, heat the water and sugar until simmering and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the berries and return to a simmer; cover and cook 5 minutes. Remove cover and simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

To serve: Drizzle the crème fraîche icing over cakes on the rack. Place cakes on round plates and fill centers with berries. Serve with whipped cream or small scoops of fresh ricotta or crème fraîche.

Per serving, Ricotta Pound Cake: 439 calories (percent of calories from fat, 46), 9 grams protein, 51 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 23 grams fat (13 grams saturated), 133 milligrams cholesterol, 732 milligrams sodium.

Per serving, with icing and berries: 715 calories (percent of calories from fat, 35), 10 grams protein, 109 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 28 grams fat (17 grams saturated), 157 milligrams cholesterol, 744 milligrams sodium.

Ricotta and Chard Ravioli With Heirloom Tomato-Cultured Butter Sauce

Hands on: 45 minutes

Total time: 45 minutes

Serves: 6

Creamy ricotta and chard ravioli and summer-ripe heirloom tomato sauce are enhanced by the addition of cultured butter. Produced with natural lactic bacteria, cultured butter has an intense flavor. Find Sparkman’s Cream Valley butter from Georgia at Whole Foods Market stores.

For the ravioli:

1 cup ricotta

1/2 cup stemmed, blanched and finely chopped Swiss chard or other seasonal greens

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Salt to taste

Homemade pasta dough, pasta sheets or won-ton wrappers, to make 24 to 30 filled ravioli

For the sauce:

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons minced onion

2 large heirloom tomatoes, diced into small pieces and drained in a strainer

3 ounces unsalted cultured butter, such as Sparkman’s

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon chopped parsley

Parmesan cheese to taste

To make the ravioli: In the bowl of a food processor, combine the ricotta, chard, thyme and pepper and pulse until there are no longer any large chunks. Add salt to taste.

With a pasta roller or rolling pin, roll out pasta dough to make very thin sheets (No. 6 on a pasta roller). Cut circles of pasta using a 2- to 3-inch ring cutter. Brush the circles lightly with water and place a generous dollop of the ricotta filling in the center of each round. Fold the dough over, matching the edges together. Press the edges firmly to seal completely. If using won-ton wrappers, fill, shape and seal according to package directions. Repeat until you have enough ravioli to equal 4 to 5 per person.

Fill a large pot with water. Add salt until the water is noticeably salty and bring to a boil.

To make the sauce: In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and sliced garlic. Cook the garlic until it is lightly browned. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes, not allowing it to color. Add the tomatoes and allow them to release their liquid. Continue to simmer, adding the cultured butter while swirling the pan. Hold the pan off the heat until the pasta is cooked.

When the water boils, add the ravioli and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until they float and the edges are soft and pliable. Turn off the heat and transfer ravioli to the sauté pan using a slotted spoon. Return the pan to the heat for a minute or so and add the chopped thyme and parsley.

To serve: Divide the ravioli among 6 plates and top with some sauce. Serve immediately with Parmesan cheese to taste.

Per serving: 456 calories (percent of calories from fat, 48), 13 grams protein, 47 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 25 grams fat (12 grams saturated), 52 milligrams cholesterol, 51 milligrams sodium.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Hands on: 30 minutes Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, including cooling and draining Makes: 1 quart

Using just 3 ingredients, making fresh, flavorful ricotta cheese is easier than you might imagine. But you will need a few pieces of equipment to get started, including a large pot with a heavy bottom that can hold more than 2 gallons of milk, a thermometer, a couple of yards of cheesecloth and a large colander. To make a smaller batch, the recipe can be halved to fit a smaller pot.

2 gallons Johnston Family Farm whole milk (available at Whole Foods) or other good-quality whole milk. Do not use ultra-pasteurized milk; raw milk is ideal.

1 cup distilled white vinegar

2 tablespoons salt

In a large pot with a heavy bottom, heat the milk over medium-high heat.

While the milk is heating, soak several feet of cheesecloth in water and squeeze out excess. Arrange the cheesecloth in 4 layers in a large, high-sided container, leaving long lengths hanging over the sides. When the curd and whey mixture is ladled into the cheesecloth, you should be able to gather the edges around the curd to form a ball and expel the whey.

With a wooden spoon, stir the milk while it heats. Use an instant-read thermometer to periodically check the temperature or attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pot. When the milk reaches 190-195 degrees, turn off the heat and add vinegar and salt, while stirring. The milk should start curdling. If not, add a few more tablespoons of vinegar to the milk until it separates.

Remove the pot from the heat and cover it loosely with a clean kitchen towel to trap the steam and keep the curd from drying out. Let rest for 15 minutes.

Remove the towel and ladle the curd and whey into the large cheesecloth-lined container.

Gather the sides of the cheesecloth together and place it in a large colander over a large bowl. Twist the ends of the cheesecloth together to create pressure on the curd and allow the whey to drain for 30 to 40 minutes.

Remove the curd from the cheesecloth and cool completely. Use immediately or store the ricotta in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.

Per 1/4-cup serving: 152 calories (percent of calories from fat, 47), 8 grams protein, 12 grams carbohydrates, no fiber, 8 grams fat (5 grams saturated), 33 milligrams cholesterol, 519 milligrams sodium.

These recipes from La Pietra Cucina chef Bruce Logue begin with homemade ricotta cheese.

Bob Townsend, for the AJC