Impress your guests with this delicious dip from Ruth Pretty. One of the top cook’s most sought-after recipes, it’s great to have when entertaining.

Recipe: Ruth Pretty

This is one of my most popular recipes and is great to serve as you would a dip at a party. A client who had asked me for the recipe told me that she made this dish for her daughter visiting from Britain, who then asked for the recipe, made it for a business guest from New York, and that the guests wife rang her from New York wanting the recipe. It’s a chain letter recipe.

INGREDIENTS
350g cream cheese (not softened or low fat)
200g ricotta cheese
175g unsalted butter (melted)
90g (½ cup) sun-dried tomatoes (chopped if they are large)
65g (½ cup) lightly toasted pine nuts
100g Pesto (rocket, basil or mint)
100g Sundried Tomato Pesto

METHOD
Allow cream cheese and ricotta to come to room temperature.
In a food processor fitted with a metal blade process cream cheese until smooth. Add melted butter and process until combined. Add ricotta and briefly pulse to combine. Divide mixture into three as the torte will have 3 layers.
Line a 4-cup bowl with plastic wrap. Place a circle of sun-dried tomatoes in. the base of the bowl and fill the circle with a single layer of toasted pinenuts.
Spread the first layer of cream cheese mixture into the bowl and smooth with a small palette knife (wooden handled metal spatula).
Cover this first layer with a thin layer of Pesto and smooth with palette knife. Sprinkle half the remaining pine nuts over the Pesto. Spread a second layer of cream cheese mixture and cover this with a thin layer of Sun-dried Tomato Pesto. Sprinkle the rest of the pine nuts over the 100g Sundried Tomato Pesto.
Spread the last layer of cream cheese mixture. Chill for at least four hours or preferably overnight before serving.
Unmould onto a serving platter and serve with toast rounds or crackers.