Sweet, chilli-spiked cherry tomatoes, roasted with garlic and fresh basil, are served over silky, smooth, dreamy, whipped goat’s cheese and finished with black olive tapenade and basil. Exceptionally easy to prepare, and using easy to find classic ingredients, this wonderful dip can be served for nibbles, a sharing starter or a delightful lunch. The layers of texture and deep flavours melt in the mouth when scooped up and eaten with some warm, toasted olive oil ciabatta or fresh baguette.
Serves 4
Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6 (fan 180°C).
Roasted cherry tomatoes: throw the olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, basil, chilli flakes, salt, pepper and stalks of basil into an oven-proof pan. Shake well and pop into a preheated oven for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, take out of the oven and remove the garlic cloves and basil. Remove the skin from the garlic and set aside. Discard the basil.
Taste the tomatoes and adjust the seasoning/add some honey, to taste. Set aside to cool a little. If you want to speed up the cooling, tip out of the hot pan, into a dish.
Whilst the tomatoes are cooking, prepare the whipped goat’s cheese – weigh all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat until silky smooth. I use an electric whisk. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
When the tomatoes are cooked, and you have removed the skin from the roast garlic, beat these into the whipped goat’s cheese.
When everything is prepared, bring it all together – spread the whipped cheese onto a serving plate and top with the roasted tomatoes.
Dollop on some black olive tapenade, if using, and scatter over a few basil leaves, or your herb of choice.
Serve, warm or at room temperature, with some olive oil toasted ciabatta or fresh baguette.
Equipment:
Can I serve it without the tapenade?
If you do not have any tapenade, you could easily scatter over some olives instead, Equally, if you are not a fan of olives/tapenade, this dish works wonderfully well without. It is also excellent drizzled with some basil pesto.