The other weekend I was invited to a housewarming, birthday party and farewell gathering all rolled into one. We weren’t having a proper sit down meal, rather a selection of small bites, with each guest asked to contribute something.
Knowing the fail safe cheese board was probably taken care of, I decided to take a flick through one of my most reliable cookbooks – The Australian Women’s Weekly Best Ever Collection. There, I discovered the recipe for baked ricotta and olives, and decided to give it a go…
What you’ll need
- 600g of fresh ricotta
- one teaspoon of thyme leaves
- 1/4 cup of pitted kalamata olives coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup of coarsely grated parmesan cheese
- one egg
- 125g of cherry truss tomatoes
How to do it
- Preheat the oven to 180°c and oil a 20cm spring-form tin, placing it on a tray.
- Combine ricotta, thyme, olives, parmesan and the egg in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and spoon mixture into the tin.
- Bake for 35 minutes, or until firm and lightly golden on top.
- Serve on a platter, topped with the tomatoes.
Cooking Notes
Knowing I was cooking for a crowd, I increase my ricotta to one kilogram and doubled the eggs.
I opted to line my spring-form pan with baking paper, just to make sure my ricotta didn’t stick.
I forgot to mix the parmesan through the mixture so I simply added it on top of the ricotta once it was in the tin, to create a crunchy crust.
I also forgot (bad day in the kitchen!) to take my tomatoes with me, to top the ricotta… but to be honest I don’t think anyone minded. I served my ricotta with lightly toasted Turkish bread, but I think it’d also be lovely served with a fresh green salad and a little balsamic vinegar.
I got lots of lovely feedback about the dish at the event, so I think it’s a keeper! It was super simple and probably took less than an hour to prepare – fantastic for when you want to make something that looks fancy, but really doesn’t require too much effort at all.
Happy cooking.
Have a wonderful weekend. x
Wattle and Ash 
This looks delicious! I have some ricotta sitting in the fridge and this may be happening tonight.
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So glad I could offer some inspiration Juliana. Please let me know how the recipe turns out for you!
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Once a month we entertain our neighbours with a confab on the front lawn with chairs, drinks and nibbles to catch up and discuss anything and everything from world events to local issues with a lot of merriment along the way.
Being inspired from the dish above we thought we may serve this up for the get-together as something different. It went down a treat with only 2 variations. Our neighbours have a reaction to tomatoes, so we gently pan-fried 3 onions with a dash of garlic as a side dish to scoop onto the mixture (much the same a BBQ onions) and drizzled a balsamic reduction on the cheese creation for a slight bite to the dish.
Thank you so much for the inspiration and the memorable dish.
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Your variations of the dish sound delicious Larry! Ricotta is such a good base to work with, you really can pair so many flavours with it. I’m glad the recipe sparked some culinary creativity in you!
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Always looking for things to do with cherry tomatoes this time of year.
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Let us know how it goes!
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If all else fails, I pop them in the freezer to use all winter in soups and stews!
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