Thursday, April 24, 2008

Ricotta Souffle with Amaretto Strawberries


     One of  my dear friends, now living in Clearwater, invited  hubby and I over for dinner a number of years ago. She prepared a dessert that I have been able to reproduce many times and it always comes out as delicious as the first time I tasted it. The recipes is actually from the California Strawberry Commission and was featured in a local magazine. I don't know the name of the magazine, as she just made a copy for me. Anyway, tonight was the night I decided we needed a great dessert-we have been cutting way back lately- I had frozen strawberries in the freezer from this season and thought I would use these instead of the fresh. Our season is now over and the berries really are not as tasty as they were last March. 

Amaretto Strawberries
2 cups (12 ounces) sliced, stemmed berries.
3 T. Amaretto
2 T. confectioners' sugar


Ricotta Souffle
Softened butter, for the souffle dish
granulated sugar, for the souffle dish
2 C. part skim ricotta cheese
1/3 C. sugar
4 eggs, divided
3 T. unseasoned dry bread crumbs
2 T. flour
1/2 t. almond extract
1/4 c. chopped, toasted almonds for garnish

To make the Amaretto Strawberries, in bowl, gently stir all ingredients together to dissolve sugar; refrigerate  covered, up to 3 hours.
To make Ricotta Souffle, heat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter a 4 cup souffle dish; coat with sugar, shaking out excess. Using electric mixer, beat cheese, sugar, 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk, bread crumbs, flour and extract until throughly blended. In a small bowl, beat remaining egg white until stiff, but not dry; gently fold into cheese mixture. Pour into greased dish. Bake in center of over for 40-45 minutes or until puffed and lightly browned. Cool on rack at least 5 minutes or up to 1 hour. Loosen the edges with knife and invert onto serving plate, (which I did not) with wide rim so you can arrange the berries around the souffle. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.  Serve with Amaretto Strawberries.
Makes 4 servings.

9 comments:

K and S said...

sounds delicious!

Katie Zeller said...

I can taste the amaretto and strwaberries... And they are heavenly!
I won't be seeing strawberries for at least another month - but they bear all summer so it's a decent trade off!

Simona Carini said...

Amaretto and strawberries sounds like an interesting combination. And the dessert looks really good.

T.W. Barritt at Culinary Types said...

YUM! Sounds easy and delicious. I have had fun working with ricotta in cakes (great fluffy results), and I really like the combination of strawberries with amaretto.

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

That souffle looks scrumptious. I've never baked anything with ricotta (apart from lasagna, of course), but this looks like something I could do. Thanks for the recipes.

Peabody said...

That sounds fabulous and I love the use of the Amaretto with the strawberries.

Betty Carlson said...

I love anything with ricotta, savory or sweet...this one goes in the online recipe file for sure!

Culinary Cowgirl said...

The souffle is beautiful...what a great way to help showcase the berries.

Cynthia said...

This sounds and looks like quite a treat.