Pickled Apricots with Ricotta on Toast

If You Haven’t Tried Pickled Dried Apricots, Now is the Time!

Many times I’ve spoken about my practice of concentrating on one really outstanding recipe when making a meal, while keeping everything else very simple, so as not to feel overwhelmed. But I don’t think I’ve ever explained, to my complete satisfaction, how and why I do this. I’m going to give it a try now.

I will frequently encounter an interesting recipe or think about something I’d like to eat, but realize it wouldn’t fit into how I typically serve my meals. For instance, I don’t serve appetizers or starters for our daily family dinners. Everything is put on the table all at once. That’s how we like to eat. Salads are served with the meal, not as a separate course, etc. This also keeps me sane. I can’t imagine juggling more than one course for our family meals.

But some of the most exciting things to eat don’t fit into a typical meal setting. My post today is a perfect example. I love to take my time putting something like this together. I bake the bread, make my homemade ricotta , and pickle the dried apricots. None of these things are difficult or fiddly, but they do take time. The bread dough has to be made, it has to rise, the ricotta needs to be made and chilled, the apricots are quick and easy, but are best if they’re allowed to sit overnight so that they soften and soak up the flavors. You could get by with making the pickled apricots in the morning and giving them all day to soak.

I love all these processes. None of them are stressful. Bread making is one of my great joys. Same goes for making the ricotta. It’s simple, but delivers extreme deliciousness. And since I’ve started pickling dried apricots, I can’t get enough of them. So, making these toasts is truly a pleasure for me. But how to fit these into my eating lifestyle becomes the question. If I’m going to put in the time and care to really make this kind of recipe shine, I want it to be the star of the show. 

We don’t really snack much, so that’s not an option. We don’t usually have time to sit down together for meals during the day. This has to be served for dinner. How do I make this work? Well, here’s what I did. I placed the toasts on a big platter and added thin slices of prosciutto and soppressata, a big bunch of black grapes, and served it as our whole meal. This way I get to enjoy something extremely delicious, which doesn’t necessarily fit into one of my typical meals. I greatly enjoy spending time on one particular recipe when I don’t have to be concerned about making other elements of a meal.

Now, let’s get to the specifics. I’ve posted many different ways of enjoying my homemade ricotta . I prefer it fresh, rather than cooked in a recipe. It is the quintessential taste of pure dairy and the fact that it’s ultra creamy doesn’t hurt either.

The pickled dried apricots are my latest food passion. I’ve played around with the pickling ingredients and have arrived at my favorite combination.

It’s one of those things you make that is extremely easy in comparison to the outcome. Combine red wine vinegar, water, sugar, salt, 1 star anise, a few allspice berries, chilies de arbol, and bay leaves in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil and pour it over the apricots. That’s it. Done. I set it aside to cool and then chill it for at least a few hours, but preferably overnight in order to get the full flavor. 

I love how the dried apricots soften, but don’t get mushy. And the flavor is spectacular. I don’t want it to be extremely vinegar flavored, so I use equal amounts of vinegar and water, plus sugar to balance it out. Then the other flavors play a big role in creating a unique and successful end product. These apricots have a bite from the chilies and depth from the warm spices and bay leaves. The first time I popped one of these babies into my mouth I was thrilled. I knew there were a lot of possibilities where these were concerned. They’re particularly great on a cheese board, stuffed inside a bun, added to a rice pilaf, and/or chopped and stirred into a pan sauce. You get the picture. There are a whole lot of ways to enjoy them.

But I’m particularly a fan of slapping toppings on good toast spread with seasoned ricotta, so that’s what I did here. Speaking of good toast, I’ve made King Arthur Baking’s recipe for Everyday French Loaf a few times now and it’s wonderful. Nice and airy, but still a little chewy with a beautifully crisp crust. It makes great toast and it’s what I used in this recipe. 

After adding some of the chopped pickled apricots to the toasts I spooned on a little of the extremely tasty syrup from the apricots, sprinkled them with gochugaru flakes, and topped each one with chopped pistachios. Wow. Wow. Wow. The salty prosciutto and soppressata were perfect counterparts. Then the light freshness of the grapes just put it over the top. 

A perfect meal in my book. I get to eat something exciting and new, while keeping everything else very simple, and this is what makes cooking so much fun. I get to enjoy making and eating a meal that I think is perfect. It’s all about pleasing the cook, right?? No, I’m only kidding. Well, partially at least. My family loved this as much as I did. And that’s a good thing because we had plenty left over for another meal and were very happy to eat it again.