Mark Hix recipe: Ricotta with spiced rhubarb

Serves 4

Ricotta with spiced rhubarb is a simple dessert to execute for a dinner party (Jason Lowe)

This is a dead-simple dessert to execute for a dinner party with no complicated cooking techniques.

Try to buy the best-quality ricotta possible, as there are some cheap rogue ones on the market – it would be a shame to ruin this lovely dessert.

250-300g rhubarb, trimmed
150g granulated sugar
2tbsp ginger liqueur or a couple of good pinches of ground ginger
A good pinch of dried chilli flakes
2tsp grenadine
250-300g good-quality ricotta at room temperature

Cut the rhubarb into 3cm x ½cm-thick batons or into 1cm chunks. Put the sugar, ginger, chilli and grenadine into a saucepan with 200ml water, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes until it's reduced by one-third.

Stir in the rhubarb, cover and leave to sit off the heat until the rhubarb is just cooked.

If the heat of the syrup hasn't cooked the rhubarb, pop it back on the heat for 30 seconds or so, then leave to cool. If the syrup isn't thick enough, remove the rhubarb and simmer the syrup until it thickens, then leave to cool and mix back with the rhubarb.

To serve, just spoon the ricotta on to serving plates and spoon the rhubarb and syrup around.