Quarterback Cannoli Charcuterie
This recipe is a touchdown in my playbook of recipes! You need to make this to share with your friends as you watch “Home Turf” on Hallmark Channel! Character Cassidy (played by Nikki DeLoach), is the president of a University who finds herself in an unexpected situation when the college football team gets benched and is forced to stay at her home!
This is a sweet charcuterie board with a football shaped dip in the center. Typically, you don’t use cream cheese in a cannoli, but I added it since this is a dip. If you don’t have a football shaped bowl, and want to shape the dip itself and turn it into a cannoli “ball”, you will need to use half the amount of ricotta in the recipe to make it shapable.
Ingredients:
-8 oz cream cheese
-1 cup ricotta cheese
-Zest of half a lemon
-2 cups powdered sugar
-1/4 cup crushed pistachios
-1/4 tsp vanilla
-Mini semi sweet chocolate chips
-A variety of accoutrements such as strawberries, cookies, broken cannoli shells, graham crackers…
Directions:
In a mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, mix ricotta, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth.
Slowly add powdered sugar with the mixer on low until it is fully incorporated.
Use a spatula to fold in lemon zest and pistachios. If displaying as a dip, place chocolate chips on top, completely covering the top. If creating a cheese ball (in which case you would have only used half the amount of ricotta), roll in chocolate chips until covered on all sides. Set in the fridge.
On a board or large platter, arrange your accoutrements as you like. Add dip (or ball) in the center when you are ready to serve. Enjoy!
