Monday, May 02, 2011

Herbed Ricotta Bruschette

Herbed ricotta bruschetti / Ürdise ricottakattega saiaviilud

One of my newest cookbooks is How Easy Is That? by Ina Garten. It's the first Ina Garten's book in my extensive cookbook library and I love it (I noted that there are quite a few negative reviews on Amazon, but then I cannot compare this book to her five earlier ones). I've bookmarked probably every other recipe from it, and can vouch that her Roasted Shrimp Salad with Orange Mayonnaise is wonderful, and her tip to set the table with empty bowls and platters with post-it notes has already been tested twice and that indeed made the last minute preparations a lot less stressful.

These herbed ricotta bruschette(or bruschettas, if you want to Americanize the plural spelling) were at our table last night for a light Sunday evening snack. I was thrilled to use the chives from my own garden already! It's a slightly adapted version, using different amounts of herbs, and both ricotta and cottage cheese instead of just ricotta, but the idea is Ina's. It's a lovely option for a spring or summer snack.

Herbed Ricotta Bruschette
(Krõbesaiad ürdise ricottaseguga)
Makes 12

12 thick slices of ciabatta or some sourdough bread
1 whole garlic clove, cut in half
extra-virgin olive oil

Herbed ricotta:
250 g ricotta
200 g cottage cheese/farmer's cheese
2 Tbsp finely chopped scallions/spring onions
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh chives
0.5 tsp sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Combine the ricotta, scallions, herbs, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Heat a charcoal grill or a toaster or a gas grill.
When the grill is hot, drizzle the bread slices with olive oil and grill each side for about a minute or two, until lightly browned. Remove from the grill and rub each slice of bread with the cut side of the garlic clove.
Spoon some herbed ricotta mixture on top. Serve immediately.

6 comments:

Triin T. said...

I'm an Ina fan myself, albeit from her days at the "House Beautiful" magazine as the food adviser.

Really Rosiem said...

That herbed ricotta bruschetti sounds absolutely wonderful. I must make some very soon, and checkout that cookbook too. Thanks for sharing!

Bernadette said...

Herbed ricotta is good! :D

Pille said...

Triin - I'll happily borrow any of the HB magazines one day!

Rose - these were light and lovely!

Bernadette - it is, and you can use endless combinations of herbs!

stefafra said...

First time that I comment and it is to complain, sorry!!
The correct plural of the Italian word "bruschetta" (a feminin noun) is "bruschette".
Not "bruschetti" and definitely not the particularly horrid and bastardized "bruschettas".
One simple rule to remember: In Italian we never ever do plurals with an S.
The rest is a bit more difficult and it depends on the grammatical gender (feminin or masculin, we have no neuter gender) of the word in question.
For example "salame", masculin, becomes "salami" and never the horrible "salamis". And ciabatte, feminin, becomes ciabatte. And so on.
Nouns ending in A tend to be feminin (plural with E), in O or E masculin (plural with I).
Keep up the good work, your blog is beautiful and full of gorgeus recipes.

stefafra said...

Thanks for correcting the title!
And sorry for the lecture.