Recipes › Tomato (Plum) › Plum Tomato and Nduja Bruschetta with Whipped Ricotta
Plum Tomato and Nduja Bruschetta with Whipped Ricotta
Heavily charred sourdough carries a punchy mixture of raw plum tomatoes crushed with spicy nduja and a little olive oil, piled onto clouds of whipped ricotta. This is the kind of thing you make when you have a glut of ripe plum tomatoes and want something that tastes more than the sum of its parts. It works as a starter, a light lunch, or a very good snack.
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Ingredients
- 600 g plum tomatoes, quartered, seeds squeezed out
- 80 g nduja, skin removed if neededor use chorizo, finely chopped and briefly fried
- 250 g ricotta
- 4 sourdough bread, cut into thick slices, about 2cmor use ciabatta
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled, left whole
- 1 lemon, zest only
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt
- 1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground
- 15 g fresh basil, leaves torn (optional)
Contains: milk, cereals gluten.
Method
- Put the ricotta into a bowl with the lemon zest, a pinch of salt and a good crack of black pepper. Beat it vigorously with a fork or a small whisk for about a minute until it lightens and becomes spreadably creamy. Set aside.About 2 min
- Place the quartered, de-seeded plum tomatoes in a bowl and add the nduja. Use a fork or your hands to crush everything together — you want the nduja to melt into the tomatoes and coat them in its orange oil. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, a pinch of flaky salt and toss well. Taste for seasoning.About 4 min
- Heat a griddle pan or grill to high. Brush both sides of each sourdough slice with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Grill the bread for 2–3 minutes per side until charred in places and crisp throughout.About 6 min
- As soon as the bread comes off the heat, rub the top surface of each slice firmly with a cut garlic clove — the toast will act like sandpaper and the garlic will disappear into it.About 1 min
- Spread a generous layer of whipped ricotta onto each slice — roughly 3–4 tablespoons per piece. Spoon the tomato and nduja mixture over the top, making sure each slice gets plenty of the orange oil from the bowl. Scatter torn basil over if using. Serve immediately.About 2 min
Tips
- Squeezing the seeds out of the tomatoes before crushing is not optional — it stops the whole thing turning watery and sloppy.
- The tomato and nduja mixture gets better as it sits for 10 minutes at room temperature, as the nduja softens further into the tomato juices. Make it first, then do the bread.
- Buy the best nduja you can find — there is a big difference between a good Calabrian nduja and a supermarket version. A decent Italian deli is worth it here.
Ring the changes
- For a vegetarian version, leave out the nduja and add 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika and a pinch of chilli flakes to the tomatoes instead.
- A few drops of aged balsamic over the top just before serving works beautifully if you want extra depth.
Keeping it
The whipped ricotta keeps covered in the fridge for 2 days. The tomato mixture is best eaten within an hour of making — it becomes watery if stored. The grilled bread does not store well and should be made fresh.
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