Friday, July 31, 2009

Baked ricotta with olive salad

Baked ricotta with olive salad / Ricota assada com salada de azeitonas

Anyone who’s been reading my blog for a little while might have probably noticed I’m insanely partial to sweets – don’t get me wrong, I love food as a whole, but desserts ARE the best part of a meal. Don’t you think? :D

As a very responsible person, ahem, I know that one can’t live on cakes, cookies and ice cream – that’s why I’m always searching for delicious savory recipes that will be as much fun to prepare as their sweet counterparts.

I love cooking with ricotta, but what really caught my eye here was the olive salad and the dressing – what a fabulous combination of flavors.

Baked ricotta with olive salad / Ricota assada com salada de azeitonas

Baked ricotta with olive salad
from Australian Gourmet Traveller

Ricotta:
350g ricotta – I used homemade
2 eggs, separated
75g parmesan, finely grated
pinch of nutmeg, freshly grated

Olive salad:
200g mixed olives
½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ thinly sliced zest of an orange
¼ cup firmly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil*

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF; grease well four 150ml-capacity well greased ovenproof dishes.

For olive salad, combine olives with chilli, garlic, orange zest, parsley and extra-virgin olive oil, season to taste – I used only freshly ground black pepper since the olives are salty already. Set aside.
Press ricotta through a fine sieve into a bowl – mine was really soft, so I skipped this part; add egg yolks, parmesan and nutmeg and stir to combine. Whisk egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form, add to ricotta mixture and gently fold until combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Spoon ricotta into prepared dishes and bake for 15 minutes or until golden – mine needed 25 minutes; they will puff in the oven like soufflés but will deflate.
Stand for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the molds and unmold the ricotta. Serve warm or at room temperature with the olive salad.

* I used garlic infused olive oil and omitted the garlic clove from the recipe

Serves 4

16 comments:

Rose said...

Oh that is just LOVELY! Making ricotta is one of my favorite things to do (so easy & so delicious). This just looks outstanding. Beautifully presented as well.

Anonymous said...

Oh yum. I recently started making my own ricotta, so I'm really excited to try this. Plus, I loooove olives.

Peter G | Souvlaki For The Soul said...

What a simple recipe Patricia, yet I bet it was full of flavour! Love the styling and photos too!

Carolyn said...

how classy!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

I love the styling Patricia and I bet this tastes just wonderful! :D

Julia @ Mélanger said...

Oh, just lovely. I should probably be interested in more savoury recipes, too. Would help my waistline! ;)

pam said...

Unlike all your gorgeous baked goods, this I can attempt!

Manggy said...

Ah, they are souffles! I was worried for a while there they were whole ricottas, hahaha! Great dinner! :)

diva said...

OH this is just beautiful. baked ricotta....dreamy x

Abby said...

I've never heard of ricotta used this way, but now I'm intrigued!

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

I agree -- the cheese looks beautiful, but it's the olive salad that intrigues me. I haven't made my own ricotta in several years, but now I'm thinking it's time to try it again.

Peabody said...

Never seen it with ricotta, only feta. Looks like a great app.

Emily said...

I know I would love this. I could eat ricotta by the spoonful.

Patricia Scarpin said...

Rose, thank you!I love making my own ricotta, too, it's infinitely better than the store-bought version.

Arugulove, thank you! Olives are impossible to resist, aren't they? :D

Pete, thank you - coming from you, my friend, that is quite a compliment! :D

Carolyn, thank you for stopping by!

Lorraine, thank you, darling! xx

Julia, I agree with you, sweetie - but it's impossible to resist the sweet recipes, isn't it? :D

Pam, you can do it all, darling!
xx

Mark, they are quite light - when I first saw the recipe, I though they would be whole ricottas, too.

Diva, thank you for stopping by!

Abby, it was my first time, too!

Lydia, I haven't bought ricotta in months now - the homemade version is so superior!

Pea, that would be lovely with feta, too - love all sorts of cheese. :D

Emily, I love ricotta, too, darling. :D

ChichaJo said...

What a delicious and elegant appetizer to serve to guests (of course I have nothing opposed to eating it all by myself either!)...love all the lements of this dish!

lululu said...

cant tell you how much i love olives! your dish just reminds me of the perfect antipasto dish i hd when we were vacationing in okanagan, BC.

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