Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Home-Smoked Ricotta on Grilled Toast

To smoke ricotta indoors, use a large pot with a tight-fitting lid and a small wire rack that fits inside. Line pot with 18x30 sheet of foil, letting edges extend over the rim of pot. Place rack in bottom. Add wood chips and cover pot. Place over medium-high heat until there’s a good bit of smoke inside, 10-15 minutes. Peek inside occasionally and shake pot to prevent chips from burning. Once smoke has accumulated, quickly place bowl of ricotta on rack and close lid. Fold edges of foil over the lid’s rim. Remove from burner and let sit 10-12 minutes. Stir ricotta and cover bowl with plastic. Refrigerate until ready to use. Once cool, stir in chives, salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F and place baking sheet on middle rack to heat sheet. Onto half of the 18x20 sheet of foil, mix tomatoes, oil, salt and pepper. Top with herb sprigs. Fold the other half of foil over the tomatoes and seal the edges tightly. Place onto hot baking sheet and roast in oven 15 minutes. Remove and open foil to cool tomatoes.

Brush bread with olive oil and grill on a hot grillpan until golden. Spread toasts with ricotta cheese and top with tomatoes, drizzling tomato juices over the top. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve.

FOR CHARCOAL GRILL
Prepare grill with hot coals under one side of grate. Cover the outside of ricotta bowl with several layers of foil. Place on the side of grill grate without coals and close lid. Let smoke for 6-8 minutes. Remove from grill and stir. Slide tomato packet onto the side of grill grate with coals and roast 8-10 minutes. Grill the bread on the grate over coals until toasted and slightly charred. Watch carefully as they’ll toast very quickly, depending on coals. Assemble as above and serve.