I don’t know about you….
Maybe it is only me …
But …
The perpetual question I find myself asking is, “What can we have for dinner that uses [Insert here: cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, beans, broccoli, corn, pumpkin or anything else I have grown in the vegie patch.] ?”
It is nearly enough to turn me off having a vegie patch. Then I think, if I didn’t have a vegie patch, I would probably go to the local market on a regular basis and buy in bulk whatever is in season. Therefore, I would be back to asking myself, “What can I make with those bargain basement cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, beans, broccoli, corn, pumpkin etc.?”
But it is worse than that. It is not just the vegie patch glut for which I am determined to find a use. As a household of two, we often have left over ingredients from a dish I have made – half a carton of cream, yoghurt that is getting old, buttermilk I bought to make some scones, ricotta bought for Nancy’s (from Plus Ate Six) Baked ricotta with lemon, grapes and olives. There is always something in the fridge that needs a home.
This summer, we have made Nancy’s baked ricotta with lemon, grapes and olives a number of times. (BTW, it is a great recipe. You should check it out.) The only trouble is we can only get drained ricotta in 1kg tubs. Each time I make it, I buy 1kg of ricotta and have more than half left over. Consequently, one of the questions I have been asking myself this summer is: ‘What can I make with that ricotta?’ When the answer also has cherry tomatoes in it, I am a very happy woman.
Actually, it was Maus who spotted this recipe. I have her trained to ask, “What can I make with *” so Maus was also on the look-out for ways to utilise the left-over ricotta. Because she found the recipe, Maus is in charge of making it – which is only fair. And it takes Maus (the slowest cook in the world) no time at all to put it together – well, apart from the ½ hour it takes her to strip 2 tablespoons of thyme leaves from their stems.
This recipe is simplicity personified and very, very tasty. The recipe is from River Café Cookbook Easy by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers.
Ingredients:
- 500g ricotta
- 100g unsalted butter
- 50g parmesan
- 1 garlic clove, halved
- 300g cherry tomatoes
- olive oil
- 6 eggs
- 200mils crème fraîche
- 2tbs* thyme leaves
*These are 15 mil tablespoons.
Method:
- Butter an oval ovenproof baking dish. The recipe says 36cm x 24cm dish but mine is 29cm x 18cm x 5.5cm and, as you can see from the photo, it was the perfect size.
- Preheat your oven to 200°C.
- Grate the parmesan and dust the buttered dish with it.
- Put the tomatoes, the garlic, one tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper in a baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven.
- Pulse the eggs and ricotta in a food processor until well mixed and light.
- Place the mixture in a bowl and stir in the crème fraîche and half the thyme. Season with salt and pepper.
- Spoon the ricotta mixture into the baking dish and scatter over the tomatoes and remaining thyme.
- Drizzle with olive oil.
- Bake for 20 minutes. I have been finding that mine needs, at least, 30 minutes. Maybe that is because my dish is smaller and, therefore, the mixture is deeper.
- This recipe is great with a simple green salad.
Passion Fruit Garden 
Reblogged this on Chef Ceaser.
I’m so happy you’ve been making my ricotta with lemon and grapes.
I’ve been making a sweet version too that I’m yet to take photos of – I top it with macadamias, orange rind and honey and when pomegranate seeds and we ate it with spelt sweet biscuits…..delish! Although I rather like the sound of your dish here – reads almost like a baked souffle.
Nancy, it is very much like a ‘rough’ soufflé.
Well it sounds and looks divine but I am off all dairy for a short while so this will have to wait. Coincidentally, I made some baked ricotta as an entree for a dinner party this past weekend. It nearly killed me not having any but it was well received by all. *sniff*
Hi Fiona. Do you have a problem with dairy? Boy that would be hard.
Well found Maus! My Pete always uses whatever leftovers he can find to make a meal – always a win, although never to be repeated.
Have a lovely weekend.
🙂 Mandy xo
Thanks Mandy
Your dish looks great. We can buy ricotta by weight at the local supermarket and deli, although it is cheaper to buy a kilo basket. I make Odie Podies (named after my grandson who helps make them) with left over ricotta. Mash left over ricotta, eggs, chopped parsley, some parmesan, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly then slap or pipe onto puff pastry to look like sausage rolls and bake until pastry is puffed and golden. Yummy and quick ricotta rolls.
Thanks for that Yvonne. The ingredients are very similar and equally yummy, I am sure.
Perhaps a great alternative to quiche, and lighter too; any rocket or mizuna in the garden patch for a salad?
Hi Robyn. There is, periodically, Rocket. It gets big and goes to seed so regularly I can hardly keep up with it.
I love ricotta too, and I have found it’s terrrific in so many ways, crumbled into pancake batter, into scrambled eggs, added to fritter batter, quiche, sweetened with honey and used as a fruit topping. I love the sound of this recipe Glenda, now I’m going to check out Nancy’s
Hi Sandra, Nancy’s recipe is a winner. I sub preserved lemon for the lemon peel and, at Nancy’s suggestion, add toasted hazelnuts.
what a lovely dish- like a savoury cheesecake. I often have the same dilemma when I buy those 1 kilo tubs of ricotta, which are economical to buy but then the ricotta search is always on. Thanks for finding this one.
Hi Francesca, the search is always on in this house.
Agreed with the earlier comment… make some ricotta at home xx
Now Liz, if I was that organised I could buy some ordinary old ricotta and drain it for a day 🙂
Have you tried making ricotta at home? It’s fairly easy and you could control how much you make. 8 cups of milk makes about 1-1/2 cups of ricotta. Then again this looks so delicious, maybe leftover ricotta isn’t such a bad thing 😉
Hi. I have never made ricotta. The trouble is, I usually want the drained ricotta ‘now’, that is why I have to buy the 1kg baskets.
Hahaha. That is completely understandable :D. Have a good weekend!