Cocoa baskets with ricotta cheese, strawberries and balsamic vinegar of Modena

For the cocoa shortbread: Chop 40 g of toasted hazelnuts and pour them into a bowl. Add 200 g of 00 flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 20 g of bitter cocoa and 90 g of icing sugar and sift it all together. Then add 90 g of cold butter and mix the ingredients together. Mix with your hands and add the egg. Knead your mixture and if necessary add a few drops of milk. You will obtain a smooth and homogeneous dough. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest for 15 minutes.

For the ricotta cream : In the meantime prepare the ricotta cream: drain 250 g of cow's ricotta cheese well. It should be a little dry. Put into a bowl and mix together with 100 g of icing sugar and 2 teaspoons of honey. Cover everything and place in the fridge.

For the strawberry compote : Wash the strawberries and cut them into pieces. Put the strawberries, sugar and water in a saucepan. Put everything on the stove and cook over low heat until the compote becomes creamy.  

Now take the cocoa dough out of the fridge, roll it out and cut out circle shapes to serve as the base of the baskets. Prick the base with the edges of a fork. Now proceed with blind baking: place a piece of baking paper on the bottom of each basket and place a handful of dried pulses on top. Bake at 180° for about 10 to 15 minutes, remove from the oven, remove the paper and the dried pulses and continue cooking for a few more minutes. When cooked, leave to cool.

With the help of a piping bag pour the ricotta cream into the baskets and spread some strawberry compote on top.

In a small saucepan prepare the balsamic reduction: put the Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, a tablespoon of water and a level teaspoon of sugar. Place your saucepan over a moderate heat and keep stirring until it thickens. This should only take a few minutes.  To finish, spread the balsamic reduction over the top of the baskets and keep in the fridge until serving at the table.