Ingredient

Ricotta

Ricotta means "recooked", and that is literally what it is: the whey left over from making another cheese, heated again until the remaining protein coagulates into soft curds. Technically that makes it a whey cheese rather than a cheese, and it explains its light, grainy texture and its very mild, faintly sweet flavour.

Why it is grainy, and why that is right

Most cheese is made by coagulating casein, the main milk protein, with rennet or acid. Ricotta is made from what is left after that has happened — the whey, which still contains a smaller family of proteins that do not respond to rennet but do coagulate when heated.

Those proteins form soft, small, delicate curds rather than the dense mass a rennet curd produces. That is why ricotta is grainy and light rather than smooth and dense, and why it never becomes creamy no matter how much you beat it.

It is also why ricotta is so mild. Very little has happened to it — no ageing, no culture doing extended work, no salt to speak of. It tastes of fresh milk, faintly sweet, and it is a canvas rather than a statement.

Much commercial ricotta today is made from whole or part-skimmed milk rather than pure whey, which gives a richer and slightly denser result. Traditional whey ricotta, if you find it, is lighter and more delicate.

Draining it, and why it matters

The step most recipes assume and few mention.

1. Ricotta from a tub contains a good deal of liquid, and shop-bought ricotta varies enormously in how wet it is.
2. Line a sieve with muslin, a clean cloth or a couple of layers of kitchen paper, and set it over a bowl.
3. Tip the ricotta in and leave it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours, or overnight for anything that needs to be firm.
4. A surprising amount of whey collects underneath. Keep it — it goes into bread dough, soup or a smoothie.
5. Drain it for anything baked: a cheesecake, a tart filling, a lasagne, stuffed pasta. Undrained ricotta releases its water into the dish and gives you a wet, split, weeping result.
6. Do not drain it for a dip or for spreading on toast, where the moisture is welcome.

What to do with it

• On toast, with olive oil, salt, pepper and honey or lemon zest. The simplest and among the best.
• In stuffed pasta — ravioli, tortelli, cannelloni — drained, with spinach, nutmeg and parmesan.
• In lasagne, in place of or alongside béchamel, which is the southern Italian and Italian-American approach.
• In gnudi — ricotta and parmesan dumplings, essentially ravioli filling without the pasta. Delicate and very good.
• In ricotta cheesecake, which is lighter, grainier and less rich than a cream cheese one, and quite different.
• In cannoli, drained hard and sweetened.
• In pancakes, folded through the batter, where it makes them extraordinarily light.
• Baked whole, in a dish with oil, herbs and lemon, until warm and set, and eaten with bread.
• Whipped, with a little oil and salt, into something spreadable — the closest it gets to smooth.

The relatives, and substituting

Ricotta salata

Ricotta salted, pressed and dried. Firm, salty, gratable. A completely different ingredient — used like a mild feta or a grating cheese.

Cottage cheese

Rennet curds washed and dressed with cream. Lumpier, saltier, tangier. Blended it can substitute in a baked dish; it will taste different.

Cream cheese

Much denser, richer and tangier. Not a substitute in anything where ricotta's lightness is the point.

Mascarpone

Far richer, essentially a cream product. Substitutes only where you want richness rather than lightness.

Curd cheese / quark

Closer than most — mild, light, fresh. A reasonable substitute in baking.

Homemade "ricotta"

Milk heated with lemon juice or vinegar and strained. Not true ricotta, since it uses milk rather than whey, and it is very good and takes twenty minutes.

Common questions