Ricotta and Pomegranate Toasts with Hot Honey

Hard to Believe That Something This Good Could Be So Easy!

Let’s cut to the chase and get right to it. Toast slathered with ricotta, piled high with pomegranate arils, and drizzled with hot honey is one of the best things I’ve eaten lately. In fact, I’m eating a slice right now as I write about it – Strictly for research purposes, right? 

This all came about because I’d rather eat good bread than almost anything else. Since there are so many great bread recipes out there, I never get bored. And baking it myself is probably my favorite kitchen activity. I baked up a loaf of Italian bread , a very easy recipe from P.J. Hamel at King Arthur Baking. It was my first time making this particular recipe and when I tasted it I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. It’s a soft-crumbed bread with a crisp sesame seed-laden crust and as good as it was freshly sliced, I knew it would be fantastic toasted.

Seeing as I’d made a batch of my Creamiest and Easiest Homemade Ricotta the day before, I started thinking how great it would be slathered on this toast and that led me down the road to imagining what else I wanted to eat with it. This year has been an outstanding season for pomegranates, causing me to keep a couple on hand most of the time. It seemed like a perfect fit. How could a whole bunch of those sweet/tart pomegranate arils not be great sprinkled on top of the milky ricotta?

So, I toasted up a thick slice of bread and tried it out. At the first bite, I knew I was on to something delicious, but I wasn’t quite there yet. I tried a tiny drizzle of maple syrup. Close, but no cigar. That’s when it hit me – Hot Honey .* Oh, yessiree. Now we were talkin’ folks!

With anything this simple, the separate elements are more important than ever. Of course, you don’t have to bake your own bread in order for this to be great. But the sesame seeds are particularly delicious with this combination. So, if you can get your hands on a sesame topped loaf of crusty bread, that’s the way to go. 

Now to the ricotta. I’ve extolled the virtues of homemade ricotta for years now. And for very good reason. It is nothing like what you can buy in the supermarkets. A month or so ago I read an article about the best brand of ricotta you can buy in the markets. It was an artisanal brand. I happened to look for it, found it, and bought a tub. I figure that if I’m going to keep talking about my homemade version I need to keep up with what’s available for purchase. 

Well, I brought it home and we did a tasting. One spoonful and we looked at each other with the same incredulous looks on our faces. You’ve gotta be kidding me. Grainy and no flavor to speak of. It was only a tiny bit better than the standard brands and that ain’t saying much. So, I can’t vouch for these toasts being great unless you make my homemade version . It’s ultra creamy and full of pure rich dairy flavor. That’s why the pomegranate arils play so well with it. They’re virtual opposites in flavor and texture.

As to those pomegranate seeds. Yes, I’ve bought the containers of seeds and while they’ll do in a pinch, I’ve never found them to be as good as the ones that come from a fresh pomegranate. After having tried numerous ways of seeding them, the way I do it is by slicing a circle along the equator of the pomegranate, being careful to only slice through the skin. I then pry the pomegranate open with my fingers, hold one half over a bowl of cold water sitting in my sink. I then whack the skin side with a wooden spoon. You can whack it hard without damaging hardly any of the seeds. They’ll fall out into the bowl and any of the white membranes that fall in the bowl will float to the top and are easily removed. I repeat with the other half. Then I drain the seeds and store them in the fridge. You’ll want to use plenty of them on these toasts. A few sprinkled here and there won’t do the trick. Pile ’em on.

Now, let’s discuss the honey. You can definitely make your own. I’ve done it. Add hot chili flakes or powder to normal honey. I’ve also warmed up honey and infused it with fresh hot chilies. Both of these are good. But the first hot honey I happened to have tasted was Mike’s Hot Honey * and it is still my favorite. I keep it on hand most of the time (it’s delicious on pepperoni pizza, amongst other things). But there are also other tasty brands out there. Just use whatever you like best.

So, that’s all there is to it. It’s hardly even a recipe, but damn, it is remarkably good.