Roasted Plums with Fresh Ricotta is a unique Italian-style fruit dessert that effortlessly turns ripe summer plums into an elegant and unexpected dessert in no time.
roasted fruit is a simple Mediterranean inspired dessert
And I’ve fallen in love with the idea. It’s a complete 180 from ice cream, cakes, and pies. It’s so wholesome you can hardly call it dessert. Homemade ricotta is soft and creamy, and pairs with the tart juicy roasted plums so well. It’s really a must-try. Add a cup of fabulous espresso and you might as well be in Compagnia.
roasting fresh summer plums makes them dessert-worthy
If you’re the type that never quite understood the whole ‘fruit for dessert’ thing, I hear you, I’m that way myself. Fruit is wonderful, but it’s just not dessert, right?
Well. This recipe for roasted plums might change your mind. For one thing, a ripe summer plum is one of the sweetest, most flavorful fruits ever, and when you roast it, the heat brings out those qualities even more. The plums will roast in just a few minutes in a hot oven or under the broiler, so you can have the pan ready to go when you sit down to dinner, and pop it in the oven while you clear the dishes.
homemade cheese in less than 30 minutes? YES!
You can make fresh ricotta cheese in under 30 minutes with whole milk and a bit of lemon juice. It’s a fun process and at the end you can add cheesemaker to your list of accomplishments.
Fresh made ricotta has more in common with a pudding or a soft cheesecake filling than the stuff you’re used to buying in the plastic tubs. It’s sweet and moist and the perfect base for all that gorgeous roasted plum sauce.
tips for making honey roasted plums with fresh ricotta
- Choose ripe but firm plums. If they are too soft they will fall apart when roasted. If you do have soft plums, just briefly run them under the broiler to heat through rather than fully roasting them.
- Commercial ricotta is not a good substitute for fresh in this dish. If you don’t have fresh cheese, try serving the plums with yogurt, mascarpone cheese, or creme fraiche. They would be lovely over rice pudding, too.
make this roasted plums recipe your own
- make it with another sweetener ~ You can sprinkle the plums with sugar or brown sugar instead of honey. You can also use coconut sugar, agave, or maple syrup.
- make it lower calorie ~ serve your roasted fruit over yogurt instead of ricotta.
- make it more decadent ~ serve over ice cream, panna cotta, or rice pudding.
- make it vegan, serve the plums over coconut yogurt, coconut panna cotta, or coconut rice pudding.
- make it with peaches or nectarines or Italian plums
Honey Roasted Plums with Fresh Ricotta
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh made ricotta, recipe here
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Butter the bottom of a small skillet or baking dish.
- Arrange the plums, cut side up, on the bottom of the dish. Drizzle with honey and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the plums are releasing their juices and getting soft. Put the pan under the broiler for a minute or so if you want to get some charring on the fruit.
- Put some of the fresh ricotta into individual bowls and top with 2 of the roasted plums, spooning any juices over top.
- Serve immediately, garnished with some fresh thyme.
I keep meaning to come back here and tell you I made these for my birthday. Not the ricotta, and I’m still sad about that, but I didn’t get home until late, and yada-yada no-ricotta later, the expectedly-not-quite-ripe plums were magnificent. We just had cheese and hard sausage and fruit and pita and hummus for dinner (my request every year, perfect fare for late August), and these plums were the only thing we “cooked”, as even the pitas came from a favorite Greek place around the corner. So glad we roasted the plums. Will make them again (plus the ricotta) another night. (Or maybe vanilla ice cream. Yummmmmm.)
Sounds like a fun night ๐
My neighbor just gifted me the most gorgeous plums and now I know just what to do with them – these look incredible! ๐
Absolutely brilliant! The plums were so delicious and easy enough to make on a whim. The ricotta worked out great – I heated the milk VERY slowly and carefully – I’ve burnt milk too often! Would it be just as easy to heat the milk in the microwave? Seriously, it took about 45 minutes to heat on the stove. I used a nut milk bag to drain the cheese. Thanks for all your great recipes.
You could definitely do it in the microwave, you’d just want to be careful about it getting too hot and boiling over. It would be great to determine exactly how long the milk takes to get to a simmer in your specific microwave and then you’d always know just how long to zap it. I love the idea!
Hi Sue – I tried the microwave. I halved the amount of milk and used a square glass pan to give it more surface area. Took about 15 minutes and I watched it like a hawk. It was hard to tell when it was about to boil, though. It did come together OK after I added the lemon juice but it was so unwieldy with the milk sloshing around when I removed the pan – and my microwave is at eye level. So, not worth it – I’ll use a nice big sturdy saucepan again next time. Thanks for your encouragement, though.
That’s too bad, Amanda, the microwave is an amazing machine, but I guess it can’t do everything ๐
Hi Sue,
I subscribe to a few blogs, and happened across yours a few weeks ago. I rarely post on blogs, although I have had some amazing recipes and appreciate each of your contributions to my addiction to food porn. ๐ I have every intention of making the plum desert. Bought the plums and honey…. but tonight, I made the ricotta. OMG!! Besides being incredibly easy…. (I encourage those plums to soften up a bit quicker) this ricotta… so darn delicious! Thank you!
Denise
This makes me so happy, not only because I’ve got a new reader, but I’m particularly excited to hear about the ricotta, isn’t it insane??
Such a simply perfect way to celebrate Summer! Love this ๐
Talk about delicious – this is the PERFECT dessert!!
Thanks Tricia, I’m on a fresh ricotta kick right now, it’s so easy to make and so incredible, I’m always thinking up new ways to use it ๐
What an amazing dessert!
Can’t wait to try this wonderful and easy dessert. The plums are so beautiful too after roasting!
I know, who needs cookies and cakes when you’ve got roasted plums??