Ricotta has to be one of my favourite ingredients. I absolutely love it and whenever I buy it I always buy more than I need. I grew up eating ricotta and I particularly love eating it freshly spread on toasted sourdough and drizzled with honey, in fluffy ricotta pancakes or in my mum’s Maltese ravioli called ravjul, just to name a few, but there are so many wonderful uses for this incredibly versatile cheese. I always buy my ricotta fresh from a deli and I’m really fussy about the brand I buy, so be sure to shop around for a creamy texture and great taste – it’s totally worth it! Ricotta does have a short shelf-life, so I always buy it on the day I’m going to use it to maximise the time I can store it, usually about 2 days. This ricotta cake has become my go to lately as it’s easy to prepare in one bowl and uses up my leftover ricotta, if there happens to be any.
What you’ll need:
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
⅓ cup olive oil
200gm fresh ricotta cheese
⅔ cup almond meal
1 lemon, finely zested and juiced
1 tspn vanilla extract
¼ tspn fine salt
1 ½ cups self-raising flour
Icing sugar to serve
What to do:
Pre-heat oven to 160°C and butter and flour a Bundt or ring tin.
In a large bowl, use a whisk to beat the sugar and eggs together until pale and fluffy, then add the olive oil and ricotta and mix well until combined and there are no large bits of ricotta.
Mix in the almond meal, lemon zest and juice, vanilla and salt, before gently folding in the flour until just combined. Do not over mix as this will make your cake tough.
Pour into your tin and bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until cooked through. Cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Serve dusted with icing sugar.
Recipe, photo and styling by Karen McFarlane – to get more of my recipes follow me on Facebook here Instagram here and Twitter here
