With summer nearly behind us, I thought I would get one last churn in for the season before shifting gears into baking warm souffles, carrot cakes, and pumpkin muffins. As is the case with nearly all my recipes, I developed this one purely by chance; I had some leftover ricotta from making G’s tiramisu and ran across some fresh ginger at the store, and then I just couldn’t get the flavor combination of ginger and ricotta out of my mind. Love the complexity of flavors with the ginger playing off the ricotta notes here. And the ricotta adds a lightness in texture to the ice cream. Spoon this over a warm fruit tart and drizzle some honey over it and enjoy the last remains of summer before it’s gone for good!
Fresh Ginger Ricotta Ice Cream
Makes about 1 pint
10 thin slices of peeled fresh ginger + 2 tbspn finely minced fresh ginger
1 c fat free ricotta
1 c half and half + 1 c half and half
6 egg yolks
1/3 c sugar
1. Place the thin slices of fresh ginger in a medium saucepan, cover with a little water, and heat for ~2 min on high heat
2. Drain out the water and keep the ginger in the saucepan.
3. Add the ricotta, the half and half, and half the sugar. Whisk to combine. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Heat until the mixture begins to steam. Then turn off the heat.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining half of the sugar.
5. Slowly pour a little bit of the ricotta and half and half mixture into the egg yolks and whisk to combine.
6. Then slowly pour the egg yolks into the saucepan with the rest of the ricotta and half and half. Turn the heat on again to medium-high, and heat the custard, stirring constantly, until it has thickened. When you run your finger along the back of your spoon, the line should remain intact.
7. Pass the custard through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth and remove the slices of ginger. Add the minced ginger. Let everything cool completely.
8. Stir in the last cup of cream
9. Pour into your ice cream maker and churn according to the machine’s instruction manual. I churned for ~20 min.