Risotto with Baked Ricotta, Tomato and Herbs

I won something! I never win anything!
I entered a competition on the Laverstoke blog to win a parcel of their lovely buffalo ricotta and I won!
What was even better is that they sent me a whole array of goodies, I got two pots of their fresh mozarella, some of their smoked streaky bacon, a big pot of ricotta and a carton of buffalo milk.

We have enjoyed the mozarella on pizza and the bacon in sandwiches (naturally) and diced and combined with some ricotta gnocchi (I used the rest of the ricotta here). We aren't sure what to do with the buffalo milk, I could make burrata (although I do have a lot of mozarella already) or we could just have it in our tea!

Being as the ricotta was the main prize I thought I'd come up with a nice recipe for you. This risotto is slightly summery but comforting enough to warm you up on this early autumn days. The ricotta is baked in the oven for 10 minutes which makes it meltingly tender and allows you to infuse it with herbs.

Risotto with Baked Ricotta, Tomato and Herbs
serves 2

Knob of butter
olive oil
approx 200g arborio rice
2 cloves of garlic
handful of cherry tomatoes
about 1 tablespoon of fresh italian herbs - I used sage and oregano
about 1 pint hot chicken stock
parmesan
4 tablespoons of ricotta

First preheat your oven to a medium heat. Put your ricotta in a small ovenproof dish, spinkle with herbs, olive oil and seasoning. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes whilst you make your risotto base.

Chop the tomatoes into halves or quarters, add to a bowl and add a little olive oil, cider vinegar and seasoning.  Leave to stand whilst you make your risotto.

Next start to make your risotto. Melt your butter with a splash of olive oil in a large nonstick pan, add in your crushed garlic and fry for a minute. Then add in your rice. Stir quickly to coat all the rice in butter and oil. Cook for another minute. Then start to ladle in your stock in small amounts, stirring and waiting for the stock to absorb before you add the next ladle. Keep testing your rice for done-ness all the time, you might not need all of your stock.

When the rice is about 3/4 done add in your tomatoes, herbs, another knob of butter and about 2 tablepsoons of parmesan, stir to combine and melt the cheese and butter. Take your ricotta out the oven. Put half into your risotto and stir in.

Once the rice is done and everything combine in the pan serve in warmed bowls. Divide the rest of the baked ricotta between the plates and serve on top. Serve with a bit more parmesan and black pepper.

Yum!


You can find Laverstoke in branches of Waitrose and some Sainsburys. You can also buy from their website.

first harvest - courgette and blossom pizza

Things are moving slowly in the garden this year, we've just harvested the first vegetables (ok actually we harvested some potatoes but the crop wasn't so great this year) - some teeny courgettes and some of their flowers too.

This is our first time growing courgettes successfully, last time we happily put them in the bed straightaway and they got eaten up very quickly! These were grown in the greenhouse first off and then planted out in a big pot once they were bigger. The plant has been slow moving in this weather but we've had a bit of rain now and it is growing much faster - we might even have one of these courgette gluts everyone is always going on about?

I chopped up the courgettes finely and put them on top of my favourite pizza base recipe with the flowers on top of those whole (stalks removed).

Pick the flowers in the morning or midday when they are fully open, dip them in a bowl of water to remove the little black bugs that courgette flowers attract. Then store them in a bowl of colder water in the fridge until you are ready to use them.

We treated them to some nice laverstoke mozarella and lots of herbs from the garden (sage, basil and oregano).

Such a summery meal, the taste of homegrown courgettes is nothing like the watery supermarket ones!
The flowers are lovely like this too, they are very courgetty (is that a word?) but also beautifully floral. Yum!
I am going to try them stuffed with cream cheese and deep fried soon too.

Cooking - The Ultimate Pizza & No Knead Dough

I think I am putting pressure on this recipe by naming it the ultimate pizza, but it really is that good. The key to this recipe is slow fermentation, you want to prove the dough for at least 12 hours, preferably 24. Luckily the dough comes together very easily as there is no kneading involved, so there is very little involved other than waiting.

The fermentation produces a thick deep pan style base which is crisp on the top and bottom but light and fluffy inside. I've tried this dough twice now, once on a 24 hour prove and second on an 12 hour prove, both were great but the 24 hour prove was amazing!


I got the idea for this dough whilst making Pitta Breads, the dough is very similar to pizza dough but has more water giving a lighter and fluffier dough. I added a touch more yeast to get a better rise than pitta breads.
250g (or 1 1/4 cups) 00 pasta flour or strong white bread flour, sifted
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 packet of instant yeast - 7g
175mls / 3/4 cup of warm water

Add your dry ingredients to a large bowl and mix together. Make a well in the centre and add in your water and olive oil. Slowly incorporate with a wooden spoon until you have a soft wet dough - add more water or flour if your dough is too dry or wet.
Cover the bowl with cling film. Leave in a warm place for upto 24 hours, or at least 12.
If you want to prove it for longer, say 48 hours, leave it in the fridge.

After you have proved the dough, tip it out on to a well floured board and very lightly knead it to bring it into a round ball. Roll out slightly, you won't need to a lot as it will stretch when you move it off the board. Place on a well oiled pizza tray (the type with the holes in, very good for getting a nice crisp base) or a baking sheet. Leave to prove once more uncovered for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Heat your oven to the highest heat and set your rack to the highest it will go.

Make up a simple tomato sauce whilst you are waiting for it to prove. This is so easy to do. Blend up a can off plum tomatoes, add to a hot saucepan with some olive oil, a couple of cloves of bashed up garlic, few basil leaves and some oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer on a high heat for 10 minutes. Blend up once more. You can freeze this sauce in little tubs or an ice cube tray to defrost as you need it, it makes about 5-6 pizzas worth.

Top your pizza with a couple of tablespoons of the tomato sauce and then mozarella and your choice of topping. We used some Laverstoke mozarella, this has a proper creamy flavour and much better than the usual rubbery offerings found. Then it was topped with crumbled sausage - do this by removing the skins, breaking up the meat and frying it in a pan with some chili flakes until crisp.

Bake in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes.

I love this dough because it requires no kneading or rolling but has bags of flavour, I'm normally a thin and crispy pizza person but this deep thick crust has converted me!