Last night we were having guest for dinner and I had been speculating for days about what dessert to serve. Normally I would have baked a cake, as they are some of my greatest cake fans :-D, but it has been quite warm these past days so I wanted to make something more refreshing.

Then one evening when I turned on the TV, I turned passed a channel showing Italian women and their childhood recipes. One of the recipes was this ricotta ice cream with roasted almonds and chocolate and I immediately knew, what I was going to make 😀

It turned out to be great, but I must admit that it would have been better, had I made it on an ice cream machine – but that is still on the ‘to-buy-list’, so I will have to settle with the old freezer method for a while yet So if you have an ice cream machine, you should use that, but this method can be used as well!

 

Ingredients (8 servings)

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 cup cream

4 tbsp. cane sugar

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup quality chocolate 70%, preferably Amedei Toscano Black

20 cherries

20 strawberries

10 raspberries

 

Roast the almonds on a dry pan at medium heat for 5-10 minutes. Stir occasionally to avoid burning. The almonds a ready when you can begin to smell a nutty aroma in the kitchen. Set a side to cool down.

Chop the roasted almonds and the chocolate into medium sized chunks (or what ever you prefer).

Place ricotta cheese in a mixing bowl and stir with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add sugar and stir again until the sugar has dissolved – it takes a few minutes. Set aside.

Whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks. Be very careful not to over-whisk it, as it might ruin the end result.

Carefully turn the whipped cream into the ricotta and fold until evenly combined. Then add the chopped chocolate and almonds and fold again.

Cover a springform pan with plastic wrap and make sure that it covers the sides too.

Pour the ricotta cream into the form and cover with yet a layer of plastic wrap. Make sure that the plastic wrap lies down close to the ricotta mass and up the sides of the form.

Freeze for at least 12 hours before serving. 

Take the ricotta ice cream out of the freezer approximately 10 minutes before serving. Remove both the form and the plastic wrap and place on a cake stand and decorate with cherries, strawberries and a few raspberries.

Serve with a glass of sparkling wine on a hot summer day or a cup of delicious Italian roast espresso on a cold winter day 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (8 servings)

2.5 dl ricotta cheese

2.5 dl cream

4 tbsp. cane sugar

1.25 dl almonds

80 g quality chocolate 70%, preferably Amedei Toscano Black

20 cherries

20 cup strawberries

10 raspberries