Tartine is defined as an open faced sandwich, usually on toasted bread. It has come to mean “fancy toast”, as made popular by the charming Carrie Baird, one of my favourite cheftestants on Top Chef.

Tartines are an opportunity to use up all these little bits in the fridge and pantry, and call it dinner. This one came about because I had some cherries that were starting to go a bit soft. Cherries might not be the first fruit you think about roasting, but the heat of the oven causes the natural sugar in the cherries to caramelize resulting in a greater depth and intensity of cherry flavour!

I had a mix of Rainer and Bing cherries. Rainer cherry season is so short, I always get greedy and buy way more than we can possibly eat. This is a perfect solution for those leftover, slightly less than perfect cherries.

I seasoned the cherries with olive oil, a drizzle of honey and some thyme. They only take about 10 minutes in the oven. I was inspired by The Flavour Bible to pair cherries with thyme. It’s such an excellent resource book.

The whipped ricotta is an Ina Garten recipe. She starts with homemade ricotta, but gently tells us that store bought is fine. I had half a container of store bought, about to expire, languishing at the back of the middle shelf in my fridge, so I used that. The ricotta is mixed with a bit of feta, some cream cheese and a splash of lemon juice. It all gets buzzed in the food processor, for a creamy, tangy whipped dip.

I sliced up a baguette, on the diagonal, and toasted the slices, because we’re fancy here at salt and serenity. Leftover toasted sourdough slices would be very delicious.