Sardine and Ricotta Toast with Warm Tomatoes and White Beans
Country bread toasted hard, spread with ricotta whipped with lemon and oregano, topped with whole sardines, and served with cherry tomatoes blistered in olive oil with white beans.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
I make this on mornings when I want something savory and I want it on the table in twenty minutes. It came out of the way sardines are eaten along the Sicilian coast, with bread and tomatoes and a lot of oregano, and it turns out that is a very good breakfast as well as a very good lunch. The pantry does most of the work. Two cans of sardines, a can of white beans, and a heel of country bread are things I keep in the house anyway, so the only shopping is a box of cherry tomatoes and a tub of ricotta. If somebody in your house is suspicious of small fish, this is the plate that tends to win them over, because the ricotta softens everything.
The method matters more than the ingredient list here. The bread has to be toasted hard, past golden and into the range where the surface is rough and dry, because a soft slice under wet toppings turns to paste within a minute. Rubbing a cut clove of garlic across that rough surface is a thirty second step that flavors the whole slice. The tomatoes go into a dry hot skillet first and are left alone until their skins blacken in spots and burst, which concentrates them, and only then does the olive oil go in with the beans so nothing fries in oil that has been sitting over high heat. The whipped ricotta goes on cold, straight from the bowl.
Four temperatures and four textures sit on one plate, which is why it eats so well. The toast is hot and hard, the ricotta is cold and soft, the tomatoes are warm and collapsing, and the sardines are silky and firm at once. Salt and oil come out of the fish, sweetness comes out of the blistered tomatoes, and the lemon and the arugula keep the whole thing from going heavy. I serve it on a weekend when there is time to sit down with a plate and a fork, and I have also eaten it standing at the counter on a Tuesday, which works fine as long as you eat the toast quickly.
Ingredients
- 4 slices whole wheat country bread, about 1 1/2 oz each, cut on the thick side
- 2 cans (about 3.75 oz each) sardines in olive oil, drained, soft bones left in
- 3/4 cup part-skim ricotta, drained if it looks watery
- 1 cup canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed well
- 1 1/2 pints cherry tomatoes, left whole
- 2 packed cups arugula
- 1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, plus wedges for the table
- 2 cloves garlic, one grated and one halved for rubbing the toast
- 1 tsp dried oregano, crumbled between your fingers
- 1/2 tsp coarsely cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Whip the ricotta: Put the ricotta in a bowl with the grated garlic clove, the lemon juice, half the oregano, and a good grind of the black pepper. Beat it hard with a fork or a small whisk for about a minute, until it loses its grain and turns pale and billowy. Leave it in the refrigerator while everything else cooks so it goes on cold.
- Blister the tomatoes: Set a large skillet over medium-high heat and let it get properly hot. Add the cherry tomatoes dry, in one layer, and leave them alone for three minutes without shaking the pan. They should blacken in spots and start to split. Shake once and give them two minutes more, until most have burst and there is syrupy juice in the pan.
- Add the beans: Turn the heat to medium, add 1 tbsp of the olive oil and the drained cannellini beans, and stir gently so the beans do not break up. Cook for two to three minutes, pressing four or five tomatoes against the side of the pan so their juice coats everything. Crumble in the rest of the oregano and take the pan off the heat.
- Toast the bread hard: Toast the bread until it is well past golden and the surface feels rough and dry to the back of a finger, four to five minutes in a toaster or three minutes a side under the broiler. While each slice is still hot, drag the cut face of the halved garlic clove across it, which is easiest if you hold the clove by its papery end.
- Build the plates: Spread the cold whipped ricotta thickly on each slice and lay the drained sardines over it, keeping the fillets whole. Divide the arugula among four plates, spoon the warm tomatoes and beans over the greens so they wilt where the heat lands, and set a toast on each plate. Finish with the last of the olive oil, the remaining pepper, and a lemon wedge.
Variations
- Sicilian with capers and chile: Add a tablespoon of drained capers and a pinch of chile flakes to the pan with the beans for something sharper and hotter.
- Mackerel: Swap the sardines for tinned mackerel fillets, which are meatier and smokier and want an extra squeeze of lemon.
- Charred pepper: Add a jarred roasted red pepper, torn into strips, to the skillet with the beans so it warms through in the tomato juices.
- Herb and lemon zest: Fold chopped parsley and a fine grating of lemon zest into the whipped ricotta for a fresher, greener spread.
- Over greens rather than bread: Skip the toast and spoon the whole thing over a bowl of arugula with the ricotta in a cool spoonful on top.
Storage & Leftovers
The parts keep well separately and the assembled toast does not keep at all, so store this as components. The whipped ricotta holds four days in a sealed jar in the refrigerator and firms up as it sits, which is fine. Loosen it with a teaspoon of lemon juice before you spread it again.
The blistered tomatoes and beans keep three days and improve on day two, once the beans have taken on the tomato juices and the garlic has mellowed. Warm them in a small skillet over medium heat for two or three minutes rather than in the microwave, which makes the beans go mealy and drives off the smell of the oregano.
Neither component freezes usefully. Ricotta separates into grain and water when it thaws, and the tomatoes go to liquid. If you want to get ahead, toast the bread the night before and leave it uncovered on a rack, then refresh the slices in a 350°F oven for four minutes in the morning.
Notes & Tips
- Let the pan get hot before the tomatoes go in: Tomatoes added to a warm pan release water and stew. A properly hot dry pan blackens the skins in three minutes and gives you the sweetness the dish is built on.
- Do not shake the skillet: Every shake resets the browning. Leave the tomatoes still for the first three minutes and only then move them.
- Oil goes in after the blistering: Olive oil held over high heat for five minutes tastes scorched. Add it with the beans, once the heat has come down to medium.
- Rub the garlic on hot bread: A cut clove dragged over cool toast does almost nothing. On a hot rough slice it melts into the surface and perfumes the whole thing.
- Keep the sardines whole: Mashing them turns the toast into a paste. Laid on in whole fillets they stay silky, and you get fish in every bite rather than a smear.
- Taste before you reach for salt: Sardines and canned beans both bring their own, and the pan juices concentrate as the tomatoes cook down. Taste the beans first, then decide.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Sardines, ricotta, white beans, and tomatoes each pull in a different direction and that is what makes the plate work. The fish brings salt and richness, the ricotta brings a cool creamy layer, the beans give it substance and fiber, and the tomatoes cut through all of it with acid.
- Sardines are small oily fish meant to be eaten whole, and the soft bones you can barely feel between your teeth are where the calcium sits. They carry the long chain omega-3 fats as well, which is why two fillets flavor a slice of toast so completely.
- Part-skim ricotta is made from the whey left over from other cheesemaking, so the curds stay soft and milky rather than sharp, and whipping them with lemon turns the tub into something billowy. There is real protein and calcium in that pale spoonful.
- Cannellini beans come out of the can already tender and soak up tomato juice and olive oil in the time it takes to warm through. They carry iron and a soft fiber, and the lemon squeezed over the top helps your body take up that iron.
- Oregano crumbled between your fingers, a cut garlic clove dragged over rough toast, and cracked black pepper are the three things that make this taste like the coast rather than like a can. Dried oregano is stronger than fresh here, and that is what you want against oily fish.
- As you eat, notice how the cold ricotta and the hot tomatoes meet on the same forkful, and take the toast slowly enough that you finish the plate rather than the first slice standing up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which sardines should I buy?
Look for ones packed in olive oil with the bones and skin left in, since that is where the texture and the calcium are, and the fillets stay softer in oil than in water. Brisling sardines are smaller and milder if you are new to them. Drain them well against the lid so the toast does not go slick.
Can I use cottage cheese in place of the ricotta?
You can, though you will want to blend rather than whisk it, because cottage cheese keeps its curds under a fork. Thirty seconds in a small food processor with the lemon and garlic gives you a smooth spread. The flavor comes out tangier and a little saltier, so go easy on the pepper.
How do I keep the toast from going soggy?
Toast it harder than feels right, rub it with garlic while hot, and put the ricotta on as a thick unbroken layer rather than a thin one. That layer is a barrier. Then keep the tomatoes and their juices on the plate beside the toast rather than piled on top.
Can I make this ahead for a weekday?
Make the ricotta and the tomato and bean mixture the night before and keep them in separate containers. In the morning, warm the tomatoes in a skillet for two minutes, toast the bread fresh, and assemble. The toasting is the one step that has to happen at the last minute.