For my mom’s 50th birthday, I wanted to do something special. I took inspiration from some of her favorite restaurant dishes and brought them to our kitchen table.
The first dish that I had to recreate was one that we had tried at Urban Hearth in Cambridge this past December.
On a whipped cloud of ricotta, laid a melody of sautéed spiced apples and onions. It was simultaneously smooth yet crisp, sweet and sour. The accompaniment of a hearty whole wheat focaccia played with the dish’s sweetness in a rustic way.
When it came to making this dish myself, I had no recipe to rely on – just my memory. According to my mom, this recreation was even better than the restaurant.
Whipped Ricotta with Apple Chutney Recipe
Ingredients
- 24 oz whole milk ricotta (or Kite Hill ricotta)
- 3 apples, cored (but not peeled): 1 granny smith, 1 pinklady, and 1 fuji
- 1 small finely chopped yellow onion
- 1 small thinly sliced yellow onion
- 4 teaspoons ginger paste
- ½ cup orange juice
- 3 ounces apple cider vinegar, a little more than ⅓ cup
- ½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
- ½ teaspoon brown mustard seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon or allspice
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- ⅓ cup golden raisins
- 1/2 cup chopped roasted almonds
Directions
Finely chop the cored apples to roughly ¼” X ¼” pieces.
Combine the apples, onion, ginger paste, orange juice, vinegar, brown sugar, mustard seeds, pepper flakes and salt in a wide pan. You can play around with the apples you use, depending on how sweet you want it.
Bring the mixture to a low boil, and reduce the heat to simmer for 20 minutes, until there’s a syrup-y liquid left. Add the raisins and simmer for an extra 5 minutes.
Whip your ricotta with a hand mixer for 2 minutes. Place it on a plate, add the chutney on top. Sprinkle with roasted almonds.
For the focaccia, I used this recipe, and simply replaced 1/4 the amount of flour with whole wheat.