Whipped Ricotta

 

I saw this post for Whipped Feta on Likemamusedtobake over a year ago and I’ve been meaning to make it ever since. It’s only taken me til now to get around to making this dip. I was on a cookery course recently (there’ll be a lot more about that later!) where we were shown how to make a light garlic cream. That made me think of this so it spurred me on to make it. I decided to use ricotta this time. I love ricotta, its such a versatile cheese that can be used in sweet or savoury dishes. It’s ideal for this kind of dip as it’s a bit of a blank canvas and needs other flavours to make it sing.  I love the addition of the roasted garlic and onion but you can leave them out if you want a simpler dip. I’ve also seen recipes that use cream cheese instead of yoghurt. Use whatever you want to use, this is just a guideline. I haven’t been too specific with measurements here as it’s really a matter of tasting as you go along and adding more of what you like. You could use this as a simple spread on it’s own or as a dip with some veggies. I served it on nice white bread toasted and just some good olive oil and then added chopped tomatoes with some extra salt flakes on top. It would be ideal to take to a picnic.

 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 small white onion finely sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic lightly smashed
• A small drop of olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• A small drizzle of honey
• 250ml ricotta cheese
• 60ml natural or Greek yoghurt
• Lemon juice

 

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 160c/140c fan/gas mark 3
• Put your onion and garlic on a baking tray and pour over some olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
• Roast the onion and garlic until they are soft. You don’t really want any colour on them just to keep the dip as white as possible. So cook them slowly and check regularly. Mine took about 25 minutes but it will depend on how finely you sliced the onion.
• While they are cooking, soften the ricotta. You could do this in a food processor or stand mixer or just use an hand held whisk. Whip the ricotta until it is very soft.
• Add the yoghurt and some salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.
• When the onions and garlic are soft remove from the oven and pour over some honey and blitz to a mush with a stick blender. You can make this very smooth and even pass it through a sieve to make it like a puree. I like to leave it a bit more rustic so that there are flecks of onion and garlic running through the dip.
• Add them to the ricotta mix and make sure everything is well combined.
• Taste the mixture and add some lemon juice to taste. Season with more salt and pepper if needed.
• This keeps in a jar in the fridge for a couple of days, but allow it to come to room temperature before you use it.