Tomato Tomatoe

whipped ricotta & roasted tomato crostini

If you can find fresh ricotta, I highly encourage you to buy it. There’s really no comparison to freshly made ricotta versus store bought. Freshly made ricotta is delicious on it’s own (my Italian mother always eats it this way), it’s amazing on top of pasta, in a sandwich or on a crostini. I like to whip my ricotta and use it on a crostini with different types of toppings. Whipping the ricotta makes it extra creamy and smooth. It’s the perfect base to crostini and it makes for an easy and effortless appetizer.

I recently travelled to Puglia and they served roasted tomatoes with many of the meals that I ordered. They served them at breakfast with eggs or as side to a steak. The roasted tomatoes were bursting with flavour. I knew when I came back to my kitchen I needed to roast some cherry tomatoes. Roasting the tomatoes draws out the sweetness and concentrates the flavour of the tomato. The roasted tomatoes work beautifully in this recipe with the whipped ricotta and grilled sourdough bread. As the ingredients in this dish are simple, you want to make sure that you’re buying the best quality ingredients. Buy fresh ricotta if you can find it, use homemade or bread from a local bakery and good quality extra virgin olive oil. This crostini is a great appetizer to serve to guests. Everything can be prepped in advance making assembly easy when you are hosting family & friends.

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whipped ricotta & roasted tomato crostini

Ingredients

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes
• 2 cups fresh ricotta
• 6-8 sprigs fresh thyme
• zest from 1/2 a lemon
• 1/4 cup olive oil + more for brushing the bread with
• 8-10 large pieces sourdough bread
• flaky salt
• extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
• salt and pepper
• fresh basil

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. To make the whipped ricotta, place the ricotta, half of the olive oil and lemon zest in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Blend until the ricotta is smooth. Set aside in the fridge.
3. In a baking dish, add the cherry tomatoes and thyme. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil. Season with salt. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
4. While the tomatoes are roasting, brush olive oil onto both sides of the sliced bread. Grill on the BBQ until golden and toasted. Remove and set aside.
5. When you are ready to assemble, you can either spread the ricotta on the crostini with a knife or you can add the mixture to a piping bag and pipe the ricotta onto the toast. Add a few tomatoes (6-8) over the ricotta. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, freshly chopped basil and flaky salt. Cut the slices of bread into smaller pieces (if serving as an appetizer).