Whipped Ricotta with Honeycomb
Ten minutes, five ingredients, and it looks like you tried much harder than you did.
This is the dish we'd make if people were arriving in half an hour. Whipped ricotta is soft, lemony and mild, and it exists mainly as something to put honeycomb on. The comb does the rest.
Can you eat the wax?
Yes. All of it.
Honeycomb is the wax cells the bees build and fill, cut straight from the frame. You eat the lot, wax included. The honey runs out as you bite, and what's left is a soft chew a bit like a mild chewing gum. Some people swallow it, some don't. Both are fine.
Nothing is done to our honeycomb between the hive and the box. It isn't strained, warmed or handled. It's about as close to eating honey the way the bees made it as you can get.
Ingredients
Serves 4 to 6 as a starter
500g fresh ricotta, the firm kind from a deli rather than a tub
2 tbsp good olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Zest of 1 lemon
A good pinch of flaky sea salt
1 South West Honey Honeycomb Cassette
Cracked black pepper
Optional: a few thyme leaves, toasted pistachios, or a drizzle of Jarrah or Blackbutt honey
To serve: toasted sourdough, crackers, or fresh pears and apples.
Method
Put the ricotta, olive oil, lemon zest and salt in a food processor. Blitz for two to three minutes until it's completely smooth and slightly glossy. Scrape the sides down once. Don't rush this part, it's the difference between whipped and just stirred.
Spoon it onto a plate or shallow bowl and spread it out with the back of the spoon, leaving a few dips and swirls for the honey to sit in.
Break the honeycomb into rough pieces with your hands or a warm knife. Scatter them over the top.
Drizzle with olive oil, crack over black pepper, and add thyme or pistachios if you're using them.
Serve straight away with toasted sourdough.
If you want to push it further
A drizzle of Jarrah over the top adds a deep toffee note against the lemon. Blackbutt TA35+ is the more interesting choice if you have it, darker and almost molasses-like, and because nothing here is cooked, the honey goes on exactly as it came out of the jar.
Thin slices of pear or a handful of rocket turn it into a proper entrée.
A note on the honeycomb
Keep it in the cupboard rather than the fridge. Cold makes the wax hard and dulls the flavour, and it doesn't need refrigerating.
Comb is seasonal and we only have it when the bees have built it, so it comes and goes through the year.