These Ricotta Toasts with Pistachio and Honey are a perfect balance of flavors – crispy bread, creamy ricotta cheese, crunchy salty pistachios, and sweet honey. They’re a great easy appetizer, quick lunch, or side dish.
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Ingredients
Just a few ingredients needed to make these delicious ricotta toasts.
- Bread: fresh bread makes this recipe all that much more special, so if you have a local bakery I highly recommend getting your bread from there. I personally love sourdough for its tang and gut-health but any rustic, crusty loaf will be great. Whole grain bread or seeded bread for example are great options.
- Ricotta cheese: creamy, delicate ricotta cheese is the perfect vehicle for its toppings. Whole milk ricotta (full-fat ricotta) is always recommended; not part-skim ricotta although if you need to use it it's fine.
- If you need to use a different cheese, I recommend stracciatella – it's the "inside" of burrata so it's creamy and mild. Goat cheese would also work but would be a bit tangier.
- Honey: local honey is always best if you can find it, but any wildflower or light-colored honey is great.
- Pistachios: roasted and salted!
- Salt: flaky salt sprinkled on top brings out all the flavors of each ingredient. You could also use kosher salt.
Step by step instructions
Since there isn’t any cooking involved in making this, it’s truly a very simple recipe! For the full recipe of this ricotta toast with pistachios and honey, check out the recipe card at the end of this post.
1. Cut the toast into ½ inch slices and spread ricotta on each piece of toast
2. Top with pistachios
3. Add a drizzle of honey and a pinch of salt to each
Tips and tricks
- If your bread isn't freshly made that day, I suggest toasting it for a few minutes to get it nice and crispy. You can do this in the toaster oven or regular oven. If the latter, place the slices of bread on a baking sheet add a drizzle of olive oil to each.
- If you can’t find roasted and salted pistachios that is fine, just dry roast and salt them yourself – a few minutes in the oven on a baking sheet at 400°F
- You can make your own homemade ricotta if you want, follow this recipe
- If you don’t like pistachios, you can use pecans or almonds instead.
- If you want to make creamy whipped ricotta, you can put it in the food processor and pulse until smooth.
- If you go the savory route by adding something like tomatoes, you can bring a lot of flavor by simply rubbing a piece of raw fresh garlic on the bread.
Additional topping ideas
While the pistachios and honey are a great topping on their own, some other ideas are below:
- Fresh fruit / fresh berries such as raspberries or stone fruit
- A sprinkling of lemon zest
- Fresh summer tomatoes or slightly jammy tomatoes that have been baked
- Herbs such as fresh basil, fresh thyme, or fresh mint – I would not recommend dried herbs for something like this
- Confit garlic
- Fruit jam such as fig jam
- Make it a little spicy with hot honey (spicy honey) or red pepper flakes
Vegan and gluten free substitutions
- If you are vegan, substitute a vegan ricotta cheese and use date syrup in place of honey.
- If you are gluten free, substitute your favorite gluten free bread or cracker.
Storage
- These toasts are best eaten day-of, but if you have leftovers should be stored in a single layer in an airtight container in the fridge. They can stay for up to 2 days.
FAQs
Local honey specifically can help seasonal allergies because local bees collect local pollen, then the honey is infused with that pollen which can in turn help combat allergies. But beyond that, if you can’t find local honey, getting raw honey is ideal because it’s unprocessed.
The fermentation that happens in sourdough making acts as a prebiotic which helps feed the “good” bacteria in your stomach.
It is a mild, creamy cheese that tastes somewhat similar to mozzarella. It’s light, barely salty, and mild.
It's a bit lighter and less fatty than other cheese, but I wouldn't consider it healthy necessarily.
📖 Recipe
Ricotta Toasts with Pistachios and Honey
Ingredients
- 4 slices sourdough bread sliced ½ inch
- 1 cup full fat / whole milk ricotta cheese
- ½ cup roasted salted pistachios chopped
- 2 tablespoon honey
- ½ teaspoon flaky salt
Instructions
- Cut the toast into ½ inch slices and spread ricotta on each piece.
- Top with chopped pistachios.
- Drizzle with honey and add a pinch of salt to each.
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