Stuffed Romaine Hearts

I wanted to make a simple salad but all the chopping and dicing and leftover ricotta cheese (from the weekend) led to a monster-sized stuffed romaine heart leaf. It was delicious and crunchy and messy! Don't forget extra napkins. 

Stuffed Romaine Hearts

bag of romaine hearts (I used about 10 leaves) washed and arranged beautifully on a platter

1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced

1/2 red pepper, diced

1/2 pint of grape tomatoes, halved

small amount of ricotta cheese, whole milk

Arrange your romaine hearts on a platter. In the center of one heart, add the cucumber, then tomato. Using a small spoon, scoop out ricotta cheese and add to center. Top ricotta cheese with red pepper. 

dressing:

If you're a purist you can simply splash this with some good olive oil and enjoy. Add some fresh lemon juice and you're golden. Any dressing will do. I'd usually do some kind of blue cheese dressing, but I wanted to use the remaining creamy Italian dressing that I had. It was definitely the right choice! Just drizzle on top of the finished product.