Ricotta cakes: ideas and recipes – Italian Cuisine


Not just cannoli and sfogliatelle: here are three original ideas to include this dairy product in your summer desserts

Neapolitan Pastiera, sfogliatella, Sicilian cannoli: the Italian culinary tradition is rich in desserts a ricotta cheese. Here then are many innovative recipes in which this dairy product of ancient origins gives its best.

Ricotta, the cheese of the poor

The name of ricotta refers directly to its original method of production: it is in fact a food obtained from annealing of whey from cattle, sheep or goat, which remains from the preparation of the cheese. In the past ricotta was also called the cheese of the poor, as it very often compensated for the nutritional needs of the poorer classes, providing them with a nutritious and low-cost food. For its preparation, the serum, properly acidified, comes warmed up up to about 80 degrees, thus obtaining a sweet product and to consume as soon as possible. First, that is, that lactic fermentation occurs. To ensure long conservation, the ricotta is then salted: in this way it can also be aged and used as a grating cheese.

Coconut and ricotta cake

In addition to getting right into many regional savory recipes, though, this dairy product also looks good as a dessert or as a snack. In fact, there are various ricotta desserts that excite the palate and imagination. The first idea is the coconut and ricotta cake: You need 300 grams of ricotta, two hundred of sugar, three eggs, 100 ml of seed oil, 80 grams of coconut flour, 150 of flour and 15 grams of baking powder. First, in a bowl, work with a ricotta and sugar whisk; then add, in order, sifted eggs, oil, flour and yeast and coconut flour. Mix everything well and then pour the mixture into one buttered baking dish. Then cook the cake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for about 40 minutes, after which, with a toothpick, you can check that everything went the right way. Let your cake cool and then slice it: to make it even more delicious, you can add a little Nutella in the center.

Coconut and ricotta cake
Coconut and ricotta cake.

With Nutella and hazelnuts

Among the most original ricotta desserts there are certainly the "nutellini“, Glasses full of ricotta, Nutella and hazelnuts. For the preparation it takes 250 grams of ricotta, 150 of nutella, 70 of hazelnuts, 50 of wafer with cocoa and 150 milliliters of fresh cream. Start by putting the ricotta and Nutella in a bowl, mixing everything until you get a fluid cream; then whip the cream and yes amalgam all delicately. Then we move on to hazelnuts and wafers, to be coarsely chopped. Finally, take the glasses and start filling them in layers: ricotta cream and Nutella on the bottom, hazelnuts and then wafer in pieces. The remaining cream is added and the game is done: keep the "nutellini" in the fridge for an hour: the time needed to treat yourself to a sweet summer break.

Tiramisu with red fruits

Ricotta can also be used in the summer in a tiramisu with red fruits. To prepare it you need: 500 grams ricotta, 300 of yogurt Greek, 250 grams of ladyfingers, a lemon peel, eighty grams of icing sugar, 250 grams of strawberries and one hundred of raspberries is strawberries of forest. First you need to do the cream: put the ricotta in a bowl, grate the lemon rind and incorporate it together with the sifted icing sugar. Mix everything and then add the yogurt to the mixture, continuing to stir, until you get a soft cream. subsequently Blend strawberries in the mixer, but keeping at least one third aside. The smoothie is then poured into another container (a bowl or a deep dish) and you can they dip the ladyfingers, one by one. The biscuits are then placed in a baking dish: once you have created a layer of biscuits, cover them in layers first with the cream, then with the smoothie and finally with the pieces of strawberry and cut raspberries. Proceed in layers until all the ingredients are used up, put in the fridge and leave to rest for at least two hours. Finally, decorated tiramisu with strawberries and a sprinkling of icing sugar: the result is one of the freshest ricotta desserts there is, ideal for breaking the heat of summer afternoons.

tiramisu ricotta strawberries
Strawberry and ricotta tiramisu.

Other ricotta desserts tried by our editorial staff

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