RICOTTA AND PESTO TORTE
Description
(makes one cup bowl)
This is one of my most sought-after recipes and is great to serve as you would a dip at a party. A client who had asked me for the recipe told me that she made this dish for her daughter visiting from Britain, who then asked for the recipe, made it for a business guest from New York, and that the guests wife rang her from New York wanting the recipe. It's a chain letter recipe.
INGREDIENTS
350g cream cheese (not softened or low fat)
200g ricotta cheese
175g unsalted butter (melted)
90g (½ cup) sun-dried tomatoes (chopped if they are large)
METHOD
- Allow cream cheese and ricotta to come to room temperature.
- In a food processor fitted with a metal blade process cream cheese until smooth. Add melted butter and process until combined. Add ricotta and briefly pulse to combine. Divide mixture into three as the torte will have 3 layers.
- Line a 4-cup bowl with plastic wrap. Place a circle of sun-dried tomatoes in. the base of the bowl and fill the circle with a single layer of toasted pinenuts.
- Spread the first layer of cream cheese mixture into the bowl and smooth with a small palette knife (wooden handled metal spatula).
- Cover this first layer with a thin layer of Pesto and smooth with palette knife. Sprinkle half the remaining pine nuts over the Pesto. Spread a second layer of cream cheese mixture and cover this with a thin layer of Sun-dried Tomato Pesto. Sprinkle the rest of the pine nuts over the 100g Sundried Tomato Pesto.
- Spread the last layer of cream cheese mixture. Chill for at least four hours or preferably overnight before serving.
- Unmould onto a serving platter and serve with toast rounds or crackers.