Do you know the Secret to Happiness? I don’t, but I know that this Baked Ricotta with Cherry Tomatoes and Honey comes close enough to make us smile, enjoy a simple dish and super colorful! If I’ve piqued your curiosity, keep reading and then let me know if I convinced you!
I tasted this dish a few years ago as a vegetarian appetizer in a restaurant, and spoonful after spoonful, I fell in love. You read that right, to enjoy this dish we will need a spoon, not the classic knife and fork.
I shared with you a few months ago the similar recipe of Baked Feta with Cherry Tomatoes and I know you loved it because the comments were many. So I decided to share with you the recipe with ricotta, the one I had enjoyed years ago. Ricotta is much more affordable than Greek feta and less flavorful, so it pairs well with honey and basil.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as well. Additionally, below I leave you some other recipes I made using ricotta. You will find some desserts, fried meatballs with pistachio, the classic and always delicious stuffed zucchini flowers, and one of the latest recipes published here on my cooking blog: french toast with salted ricotta and confit cherry tomatoes that will enchant and surprise you.
Let’s move on to the recipe and the video recipe you will find below. Remember that every morning I wait for you in the group and on the Facebook fan page of Le Ricette di Bea with the Recipe of the Day!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 2People
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 383.73 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 22.00 (g) of which sugars 8.48 (g)
- Proteins 19.62 (g)
- Fat 25.68 (g) of which saturated 11.35 (g)of which unsaturated 5.33 (g)
- Fibers 1.92 (g)
- Sodium 390.59 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 420 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Baked Ricotta with Cherry Tomatoes
- 10.5 oz ricotta (in my case, two ricottas of 5.25 oz each)
- 1.1 lbs yellow cherry tomatoes (and red cherry tomatoes)
- 2 tablespoons honey (in my case acacia)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- A few leaves basil (fresh)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper
Keep in mind that with this recipe, we will prepare an appetizer for two people; if you have more guests, double or triple the amounts. Consider about 5.25 oz of ricotta per person and about 3.9 oz of yellow and red cherry tomatoes.
Tools for Preparing Baked Ricotta with Cherry Tomatoes, Honey, and Basil
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Baking Tray
- 1 Oven
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Plate
Steps for the Recipe Baked Ricotta with Cherry Tomatoes and Basil
This is a very simple recipe, with just two main steps; therefore, the first thing to do is to turn on the oven to preheat it to 356°F using the static mode.
Now we can focus on the two steps I mentioned: they are the following. Place yourself on a work surface and with a knife cut the yellow and red cherry tomatoes in half and then set them aside on a small plate.
Then take a rectangular baking tray large enough to contain two ricottas of about 5.25 oz each and the dose of cherry tomatoes we just cut.
Place the two ricottas in the tray, just by turning them over from their containers. Then arrange all the cherry tomatoes in the tray. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Now take the fresh basil leaves, wash and pat them dry. Arrange the leaves between the cherry tomatoes and on top of the ricotta. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and the two tablespoons of acacia honey.
We are ready to bake the ricotta with yellow and red cherry tomatoes. Place the tray in the center of the oven, let it cook for about 25 minutes with the static mode we previously set.
After this time, slightly raise the temperature to 374°F and switch the mode from static to grill. Let it cook for another 5 – 10 minutes. You will see that on the surface of the ricotta a light golden color will form, it should not burn. Even the cherry tomatoes should not burn, so don’t stray too far during the second cooking time of the baked ricotta.
We are finally ready to enjoy baked ricotta with red and yellow cherry tomatoes seasoned with honey and basil, a colorful appetizer, a tasty vegetarian aperitif. In the smaller version, the one with ricottas about 2.5 oz each, it could be served as tapas.
I can only wish you a good appetite and remind you that I am waiting for you every day here in my kitchen with many easy, quick, and delicious recipes like this one!
Bea’s Tip: as I show you in the video recipe under the initial photo, I recommend adding also a nice tablespoon of honey over the ricotta and cherry tomatoes raw. The scent is intoxicating, I assure you!!! Try it to believe!!!
Recipe Variations
You can replace the ricotta as I did before with some Greek feta. You can then replace the yellow and red cherry tomatoes with some grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. If you don’t like honey you can skip it, just increase the amount of extra virgin olive oil to drizzle over the tomatoes and the ricotta before baking.
