White Bean and Ricotta Dip

The weather in Melbourne has become decidedly chilly of late, Autumn has set in and the summery clothes have been packed away. But this gives us an excuse to light the fire pit in the garden and have friends around for a casual dinner outside, warming our bottoms by the fire.

And so it was the other weekend, the man cooked his famous chilli (recipe to follow later) but we needed something to nibble while we had a couple of drinks first. 


How often do we really cook other bloggers recipes, I have slowly realised how handy this can be - I remembered reading recently a couple of great blogs one was over at Hotly Spiced and the other Glamourous Glutton both about dips. 

I had a tin of cannelini beans in the back of the cupboard and dragged it out to whip up something simple and hopefully impressive or at least edible. So adapting the recipe from Hotly Spiced I made this  lovely little dip that turned out quite good, even if I do say so myself (and my guests wanted the recipe!) So I thought I would share with anyone else wanting a quick dip.

Ingredients

• 1 can cannelini beans rinsed and drained
• 1  garlic clove
• handful fresh thyme
• splash of olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or enough to make a good consistency)
• 2 tablespoons ricotta cheese (or enough to make a good consistency)
• cracked pepper 

Method

•  Heat oil in a pan
• Add beans, garlic, herbs and cook gently until garlic is fragrant
•  Transfer to a food processor, add lemon juice and blend
• Add olive oil in a slow steady stream and continue processing until all is combined
• Pour into a bowl and whip in the ricotta
• Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and a squeeze of lemon

I would have loved to have served this with some lovely pinwheel pastries from Glamorous Glutton but I will have to make these next time.