Ricotta is a kind of soft unripened cheese, which is produced in Italy with goat's, cow's or sheep's milk by a long cooking process. Apparently, because of the way it's prepared, ricotta shouldn't be called cheese but rather a milk product. It is an interesting fact that ricotta contains five times more calcium than cottage cheese.

Ricotta is excellent for desserts but you may use it also with dry dishes like pasta or as a filling for tarts.

Today's dessert could be called cheesecake or thin cheese tart because it has more caramelized fruit than cheese. Due to this it is light, less caloric than traditional cheesecake and may be eaten even by these who count calories. The beautiful sweet-and-sour aroma of cinnamon plums and almonds means it is the perfect culmination of an autumn dinner.

The inspiration for this dessert comes from the Lidl online cookery book.

Ingredients:
dough
500g of ricotta
2 eggs
5 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon essence
lemon zest
fruit:
500g of plums
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of butter
5 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
a fistful of almonds

Heat the oven up to 200C. Cover a baking sheet with some baking paper.

Mix the ricotta cheese with the sugar, eggs, lemon essence and lemon zest. Pour the dough onto the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

Clean the plums, remove the stones and cut into quarters. Melt the sugar and butter in a pan. Add the plums and fry for 5 minutes. Spice it up with cinnamon and lemon juice. Stir the mixture. Arrange the plums on top of the baked cake and sprinkle with the sauce from the pan. Decorate with roast almonds.

Enjoy your meal!