Whipped Ricotta

A 5-minute sauce and condiment that's versatile and delicious.

Hey, everyone!

This week I have a recipe for you that’s super simple but incredibly versatile— whipped ricotta.

Ricotta on it’s own is solid, but this version takes it to a new level. By whipping it together with some olive oil, lemon juice, and lemon zest you get a smooth, creamy, airy, all-purpose condiment and sauce. It comes together in less than 5 minutes, stores well, and goes with a bunch of stuff. I’ve been making this a ton recently, and I recommend you give it a try.

At the end I’ve included a recipe for how I utilized this recently, as well as a few other ideas for how you can put it to work.

This newsletter is free, but if you enjoy it the best thing you can do to help me out is to share it with someone who you think might like it! As always, let me know if you have any questions!

Myles

Ingredients

• 1-1.5 cups of fresh ricotta (I really like the Bellwether Farms brand, which is available at Whole Foods)

• juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

• 1-2 tbsp olive oil

• salt

Process

Put the ricotta, lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil in a food processor, along with a big pinch of salt.

Pulse and process until everything is well-incorporated and the texture is smooth and airy. If you need to, use a spatula to scrape down the edges of the food processor and make sure everything is mixed in.

Taste and adjust as needed with more salt, lemon juice, or lemon zest.

That’s it! I’ll often use this right away, or store it in an airtight glass contained in the fridge, where it keeps about a week.

How To Use It

There are so many ways to use this.

The other night I made a dish that was one of my favorites in recent memory— breaded and fried chicken cutlets that I served over a bed of whipped ricotta. I topped them with Calabrian chiles and a bunch of parsley, cilantro, and arugula that I dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was delicious.

This dish is actually quite easy to make. You can use the same technique for the chicken that I use in this post— just omit the final step of broiling with the cheese and sauce. I also pounded the chicken thighs extra thin to make them cook easier. Serve them over the whipped ricotta and top with a big pile of the dressed herbs.

Some other ideas for using this:

• Spread it on a plate and drizzle some really good olive oil over the top. Use that as a dip for bread.

• Spread it over toasted sourdough bread and top with lemon zest and chile flakes.

• Spoon a bunch of it onto a plate or bowl and spread it out to create a base for roasted vegetables. I especially love it with the sweetness of roasted root veggies.

• Use it to make this killer roasted broccolini with garlic-shallot confit and whipped ricotta.

• Fold it into cooked pasta.

• Add a big dollop on top of homemade pizza.

Final note— this same technique also works with feta cheese! You can add that to a food processor (along with lemon, salt, and olive oil) and whip it for a really nice sauce/dip. Because feta is a bit thicker, I’ll sometimes add some yogurt to the mix as well to get a nicer consistency for the final product.

Enjoy!