Baked ricotta white peaches & juicy watermelon

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24 January 2017 BY Julie Biuso
SERVES: 4

Gorgeous, sweet, summery. Go to it ...

Ingredients

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200-300g (7-10 ounces) ricotta 1 tiny dried bird’s eye chilli, crushed ½ tsp coriander seeds, crushed with a mallet Flaky sea salt 12 fresh kaffir lime leaves Extra virgin lemon-infused olive oil Half a small watermelon 4 white peaches (or nectarines) Lime wedges for serving

Method

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1 Bake the ricotta first. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F). Pour off any liquid from ricotta. If it is in a tub, tip it out onto a baking tray (sheet) lined with baking (parchment) paper and slice through the middle to make two rounds. If it is out of a pouch, or homemade, shape it into two flat mounds. The ricotta will spread so don’t bother fiddling to make the mounds perfect. Sprinkle with chilli and coriander seeds and a little sea salt. Top ricotta rounds with a kaffir lime leaf and drizzle with oil.

Drizzle with lemon-infused olive oil

2 Bake for about 15 minutes, until the ricotta has browned. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look exactly like mine in the photograph as each brand of ricotta is different, depending on what type of milk is used, whether it is fresh or has been pasteurised or stabilised. Cool ricotta until firm enough to slice.

Baked ricotta – yes, mine got a tad too sizzled around the edges, but I scraped off the blackened bits and carried on!

3 Using scissors, snip out the spines of the remaining kaffir lime leaves and discard. Chop the leaves roughly, then grind in a small spice grinder or coffee grinder (or chop very finely by hand with a large knife).

4 Slice watermelon into thinnish wedges, removing rind and flicking out black seeds where you can. Cut peaches into thin wedges. Arrange watermelon slices in a stack on plates, top with wedges of baked ricotta and surround with peaches. Sprinkle with kaffir lime leaf dust and sea salt and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Serve immediately with lime wedges or squeezing over.

Recipe Notes

If you don’t have access to fresh kaffir lime leaves, use freeze-dried powdered lime leaves. Do not attempt this with lime leaves that have been frozen.