Whipped Ricotta Caprese Dip

This dip is a love child between two of my favorite things: whipped cheese dips and caprese anything. This came about because I needed to bring an appetizer to an event, so I threw this little number together thinking "How could two such beautiful things not be perfect together?" And you know what? I was right.

Whipped Ricotta Caprese Dip

Serves: 6

Active Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

For The Whipped Ricotta Dip:

• 15 oz. whole milk ricotta cheese
• 2 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 oz. grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

For The Tomatoes:

• 10 oz. grape tomatoes
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
• 1 tbsp. Italian seasoning
• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

For The Whipped Ricotta Dip:

1. Add the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to the bowl of a food processor.
2. Pulse until the dip is smooth.

For the Caprese Topping:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a baking dish, combine the tomatoes, olive oil, garlic cloves, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
3. Bake tomatoes uncovered for 35 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft and have blistered and broken open. Once they are done baking, lightly smash the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Remove the whole garlic cloves if you do not want to serve them. Allow the tomatoes to cool for about 15 minutes.
4. Pour the tomato/olive oil mixture over the ricotta dip. Serve topped with more freshly grated parm and lots of fresh basil!

Sangiovese

MY RECOMMENDATION:

Tempo Morellino di Scansano

WHY IT WORKS:

• I think it's only right to pair an Italian red wine with a dip that features tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, ricotta and basil as the stars of the show.
• This wine has notes of cherry, red fruit, oak, vanilla and leather. It is well balanced with medium body and medium acidity.
• I love this wine with the ricotta dip because I think that the vanilla and leather notes create a lot of depth in the wine. That depth compliments the sweet caramelized tomatoes that top the dip.
• Sangiovese is a classic Italian grape varietal. It almost always pairs well with anything that incorporates tomatoes because it usually is higher in acid than other red wines. Tomatoes have so much acid in them that they need a bright wine like Sangiovese to stand up to them.