Dominique Rizzo | Bespoke Food Tours
Chocolate, Toasted Almond & Vanilla Ricotta Ice Cream Cassata, Festive Fruits, Berry Sauce
Easy
Prep 20 minutes plus freezing time
Inspired by the sweet Sicilian ricotta cassata, a traditional dessert made with soaked sponge, ricotta laced with candied fruit and traditionally covered with a green marzipan. My version of the cassata comes in the form of a Chocolate, Toasted Almond & Vanilla Ricotta Ice Cream cake… of sorts. Piled high with Summer fruits and berry syrup. The whole process of making this is fun, festive and very easy and a great recipe to get all the family involved. It packs a unch with the wow factor and can be made in a bowl or loaf tin, individual moulds or a lamington tray.
All of the ingredients can be substituted and the flavours of the cassata are limited by your flavour imagination.
This recipe makes one large cassata in a 3 lt bowl or 2 loaf tins at 11cm x 30 cm
Ingredients
- 80g dried peaches, diced
- 50g mixed fruit
- 1 cup orange juice
- Zest of 2 oranges
- 60g almond flakes, toasted
- 100g dark chocolate, chopped
- 400g firm ricotta
- 2 tblsp pure icing sugar
- 2lt vanilla ice cream
- 1lt double chocolate ice cream or gelato
- 1 cup berry sorbet
Berry Sauce
- 1 1/2 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)
- 1 1/2 cups strawberries (fresh or frozen, sliced)
- 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
- 1 cup sugar
- Peel of ½ lemon and 2 tblsp juice
Recipe Steps
Garnish – optional
You can use a simple garnish or edible flowers or a selection of fresh fruits, loading it up with broken store bought meringue, and a little spun sugar. Here is your chance to let your creativity go wild.
I used a selection of fresh Cherries, Peaches, Nectarines, Passion fruit, and mango, mini meringues and Spun sugar
Berry Sauce
Place all the ingredient into a saucepan over a moderate temperature and allow the berries to simmer until broken down. Cook for 15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly then blend.
- Lightly grease your bowl or loaf tins and line them with well with plastic wrap. Make sure the plastic wrap is smooth inside and there is some hanging over the edge. This will make it easy to remove the cassata when its frozen.
- Place the diced dried peaches and the mixed fruit in a small pot with the orange juice and bring to a simmer over a low heat until the fruit has softened and is plump. Allow to cool and drain off the juice putting it aside. In a food processor or mixer beat the ricotta with 100g of vanilla ice cream until smooth. Add in the icing sugar, the drained orange juice, then fold in the softened peaches, mixed fruit and half the chopped dark chocolate and half the toasted almonds. Set this aside in the fridge.
- Place the remainder of the vanilla ice cream into your mixer or food processor and whip until smooth. Spread this into your tin or bowl, sprinkle over the remainder of the toasted almonds and place this into the freezer to set for an hour. Do the same for the chocolate ice-cream, then sprinkle on the remainder of the chopped chocolate. Freeze again for 1 hour then spread in the berry sorbet. Freeze this again, then spread in the ricotta mix. Using the overlapping plastic wrap, cover the ricotta layer and place into the freezer overnight.
- To serve, remove the cassata from the freezer and invert onto your platter making sure you have opened the plastic wrap so you can use this to pull the cassata out of the mould. Leave it for a couple of minutes before removing the bowl, pour on your berry sauce and garnish with your choice of fruits.