How to Make Whipped Ricotta
All you need is a mini food processor.
by Erin Henderson
Whipped ricotta is one of my go-tos when I’m looking to impress but have zero time to dedicate to the mission. Buy a tub, throw it in the blender, and flavour it the way I see fit. It’s easy, fast, and everyone loves it.
Depending on my mood and the season – and what I’ve got lying around – I’ve flavoured this with different toppings: fresh basil and lemon zest in the summer, roast garlic and olive oil in the fall, or Calabrian chilis when I’m feeling spicy.
With truffles in season right now, I’m loving the sweet/earthy/savoury balance of drizzling truffled honey over top.
Whipped Ricotta with Truffle Honey
I know you're looking at the steps below, rolling your eyes and thinking it's an unnecessary faff to mix and taste, mix and taste.
It's not.
Different ricotta brands have different tastes and textures, so while this recipe is dead simple with the food processor doing all the work (my preferred piece of equipment for this but use what you've got), you do need to be a bit more than comatose in the kitchen, tasting as you go to ensure the end product has the flavour and texture you want.
Makes: 1 cup
Chef level: easy
Special Equipment: Mini food processor, blender or nutribullet
Ingredients:
- 1 500g tub of good quality ricotta
- 3 Tbsp full fat Greek yogurt
- 2 Tbsp garlic oil or extra virgin olive oil (or as needed)
- Zest of one lemon
- Salt, to taste
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp cream (or as needed)
- Truffle honey, for topping
How to Make It:
- Add add undrained ricotta, yogurt, a little oil, and a little salt into a mini food processor or blender (such as a Nutribullet).
- Blitz everything together until smooth, about a minute, and taste. It will likely still be a bit granular in texture and need some more smoothing out. It will also probably need a little bit more flavour. Season with salt, and a little splash more of oil and the cream.
- Keep mixing and tasting until you get the smooth, spreadable texture you want. This will probably only take 2-3 adjustments.
- Once ready, taste for seasoning and add more salt if needed, and a little lemon juice for brightening.
- When it tastes the way you like, spoon the ricotta out of the blender and spread on a rimmed plate drizzling honey into the crevices.
- Serve with toasted baguette slices.
Wine Pairing:
This will largely depend on you flavouring additions, but assuming you’re taking my idea of the truffle honey, and I highly encourage you to do so, I would stick to something light and bright, with a wink of sweetness to contrast the creamy richness of the ricotta and handle the sugar of the honey.
I like a texture of an off dry Pinot Gris for this, but you could also easily pair a Riesling.