Picnic style Baked Ricotta
Alexandrina Winter Recipes Series
PICNIC STYLE BAKED RICOTTA
The beauty of this Baked Ricotta is that you can use a variety of fillings to suit your taste, olive tapenade, chargrilled eggplant, blistered oven roasted cherry tomatoes, or a seasonal pesto, to name a few. It’s such a goodie for a light lunch, supper or picnic, especially when accompanied by a garden salad. It also makes good cocktail fare, served with slices of a sour dough loaf.
Serves 4 – 6
Groundwork – 10 minutes preparation time + 20 minutes in oven
You will need four 125ml (1/2 cup capacity) ramekins for this recipe. It’s also best to make this recipe the day before.
Elements
- 500g Alexandrina Fresh Jersey Ricotta
- 50ml olive oil
- 50g Alexandrina Finniss River Romano, finely grated
- 2 Tbsp of fresh herbs, chopped (your choice – rosemary, sage, thyme, curry leaf, mint, coriander, best to choose one or two)
- 250g cherry tomatoes, (you may like to oven roast the Cherry Tomatoes the day before for best results)
Technique
- grease the ramekins
- combine the Ricotta, finely grated Romano, half the olive oil and half the herbs in a large bowl.
- season the mixture with salt and pepper
- pack the mixture into the prepared ramekins, pushing down well.
- cover with plastic free wraps and refrigerate overnight
- preheat the oven to 220°C
- chop the cherry tomatoes in quarters and toss with the remaining olive oil and herbs.
- turn out the ramekins onto a greased baking tray (you may like to wash the plastic free wraps)
- place the tomatoes on the tray with the ricotta and roast in the oven for 20 minutes until the ricotta is golden around the edges.
- serve immediately
Calcium Hero of the Dish | FRESH JERSEY RICOTTA
Alexandrina's Fresh Jersey Ricotta is made with a mixture of whey and Alexandrina’s Full Cream Jersey milk. Ricotta in Italian means ‘re-cooked’, it evolved from the ‘whey’ left from the making of cheese. Fresh Jersey Ricotta is a mass of creamy-white, fine and moist grains, and is firm in texture - not too wet, nor too solid. A small round wheel is made that looks like an upturned basin, with a patterned surface, the result of being drained in a colander then placed in a small tub. Fresh Jersey Ricotta is delicately lemony, mild and milky, with a slightly sweet, eggy flavour and has a fresh aroma. Fresh Jersey Ricotta is full of fresh protein. It is best eaten fresh, suitable for spreading or it can be used as a filling or for baking. 8.7 % minimum fat | available in 500 g tub.
As well as ...
Calcium Hero of the Dish | FINNISS RIVER ROMANO
Alexandrina's Finniss River Romano is a piquant infused pecorino-style cheese, aged for over 12 months. This handmade cheese has an extraordinary pleasant taste and texture. It lingers long on the palate, with a delightful aroma and visual appeal. Match with red wine varietal.S erve this cheese | on a platter with pinenuts, sundried tomatoes and green olives. It is also versatile shaved on top of savoury dishes with basil, roast tomatoes and garlic. 27.9 % minimum fat | available in a 10kg wheel, or various weighted wedges vacuum packed.
Looking for the Alexandrina Range? | Alexandrina Cheese work with an incredible network of retailers and one or two key partners across the country. This list is just the beginning of where you can find Alexandrina Cheese products near you. We recommend giving retailers a call to check for which Alexandrina Cheese products they have in stock. Here is the link ---> Stockists
Looking for Olive Oil | We love Peninsula Providore’s cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. This oil is a medium style with some lovely grassy green notes on the finish. Here is the link ---> Peninsula Providore
Plating up | You may choose to serve your Baked Ricotta on a platter as a simple appetiser, either served warm or cold, pair it with your favourite crackers, toasted sour dough bread and even some fermented vegetables.
Top tip | You could add any seasonal vegetables to this Baked Ricotta, we love to use an olive tapenade, chargrilled eggplant, blistered oven roasted cherry tomatoes, or a seasonal pesto, to name a few.
Find more Alexandrina Recipes here | Alexandrina Curd’s & Whey blog
We are preparing ourselves for our second Cook - Along - Together Challenge this Winter with Alexandrina Cheese Company
You are welcome to tune in to our LIVESTREAM on Wednesday to hear about how this #challenge is going to work.
Our second recipe of the series is this delicious Picnic Style Baked Ricotta.
We are keen for you to post your cooking photographs either on facebook or instagram, using our new hashtags.
#cookalongtogether #alexandrinacheese
Each week the second hashtag will change, stay tuned!
#picnicstylebakedricottacookalongtogether
Alexandrina Cheese Club - Recipes & Cooking - Australia
First published sometime during the early 2000’s – Cooking with Rebekah, and commonly Rebekah handed out little recipes at the Alexandrina Cheese stall at the farmers market.
This blog is not sponsored, we exclusively partner with Alexandrina Cheese Company Pty Ltd.