Ricotta Gelato
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This is the kind of recipe I knew I would love before I even made it. It is one of the simplest recipes in Brooks Headley's, Piglet winning, Fancy Desserts, and it is ridiculously easy. All you have to do is take some good ricotta (sheep's milk if you can swing it), add some honey, simple syrup, and a pinch of salt, then chill and churn it. Done and done. I liked this gelato best as soft serve, straight from the machine, but you could transfer it to a freezer safe container and chill it for a couple of hours to make scoops like the ones shown here.
For as much as I love richly-hued food and food photography sometimes a blank canvas, white on white, is just the thing, but I wanted to top my gelato with some crunchy bits for texture so I chopped up some salty fried Marcona almonds and white chocolate to sprinkle on top. It made for a nice sweet -salty-creamy combo. This gelato would also be delicious with berries or roasted fruit or maybe some cacao nibs or anything that tastes good with ricotta sprinkled over top really. Maybe tomato jam and a little olive oil? Too weird? Go crazy with the free styling people. I hear Brooks' team made this into a canoli inspired treat for his Superiority Burger Pop-up burger joint, which also sounds great.
Brook's Headley's Ricotta Gelato
The original recipe in Fancy Desserts makes about 2 quarts of gelato which I knew was a bit more than my home machine could handle, so I cut the recipe in half. To make simple syrup: combine equal parts granulated sugar and water in a saucepan, cook over medium-high heat until the mixture comes to a boil and the sugar is completely dissolved. Chill thoroughly before adding the simple syrup to the other ingredients in this recipe. Oh, and I probably don't need to tell you all this, but use good quality ricotta here, the sheep's milk kind if you can find it.
3 cups full fat ricotta (750g)
1 1/2 cups simple syrup (500g)
1/4 cup honey (85g)
pinch salt
Add the ricotta, simple syrup, honey, and salt together to a medium, deep-sided bowl. Blend with an immersion blender for one minute, until super smooth. Set the bowl over an ice bath and chill, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for three hours, or overnight if you have the time. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's instructions. Serve immediately or transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze until firm.
