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Food

Lyndey Milan’s herbed baked ricotta with garlic toast

Preparation time
10 minutes

Cooking time
45 minutes

Serves
12

Ingredients

¼ cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 kilo fresh ricotta
100g freshly grated parmesan
4 eggs
¾ cup chopped fresh herbs of choice e.g. parsley, oregano, basil + extra basil leaves for garnish
1 tsp sea salt flakes & freshly ground black pepper
200g baby spinach leaves
2 tbsp chopped toasted pine nuts
2 birds eye red chillies, sliced
1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
¼ cup (50g) small black olives (Lingurian), to serve (optional)
Rocket, to serve (optional)

Garlic Toast

1 large loaf crusty Italian bread
¼ cup (60ml) olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled, roughly chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 160ºC. Line base with baking paper and brush 20cm round springform cake tin with a little of the oil.
Mix ricotta, parmesan, eggs, herbs, salt and pepper. Spoon half this mixture into the cake tin.
Pour boiling water over spinach in a colander, drain well and squeeze dry in kitchen paper. Chop roughly. Sprinkle ricotta mixture in tin with spinach not quite to the edges and press lightly into the ricotta mixture. Cover with remaining cheese mixture; smooth the top with the back of a spoon.
Sprinkle the pinenuts and fennel seeds over the ricotta. Run chillies in a colander under a tap to remove most seeds. Scatter over the ricotta. Drizzle with remaining extra virgin olive oil and bake for 45 minutes.
For garlic toast: cut bread diagonally into 1cm slices. Brush both sides with combined olive oil and garlic and place in oven until golden and crisp, approx. 10 minutes. Cool and store in an airtight container.
Cool baked ricotta and serve at room temperature, cut into wedges with olives, rocket and garlic toast if desired.

Lyndey’s note: this is easy to transport to a picnic in its tin. Leftover ricotta is delicious on toast, on sandwiches, with antipasto and tossed with a tomato sauce through pasta.