A ‘Perfect’ Ricotta Post
If ricotta is not your thing, then you probably no need to read further. This post is all about ricotta, well not just ricotta, but food made with Perfect Italiano ricotta cheese. Thanks for Fleur at Mark Communications for sending me a huge bag full of tubs and tubs of ricotta cheese. It also only means that anything I cook for the next few weeks (if not months) will involved ricotta cheese!
Just to make sure that I eat, sleep, and poo write about ricotta, they even sent me a list of ricotta cheese recipes as bed time reading material, so all I can dream of is white fluffy ricotta clouds with lamb chops jumping over it again and again…
In my Perfect Italiano ricotta stash, there are options of original, light and savoury; each has its own purpose for what kind of food you are going to make. I also noticed there are extra light and sweet ricotta in the range on their website. The sweet ricotta with added sugar content is suggested to be used for baking and desserts. Since I didn’t get any of the sweet vatiery, I made a ricotta cheesecake using the original flavour by adding a cup of sugar into the recipe and it works just as perfectly fine.
I also make a cos lettuce, asparagus ricotta salad with crispy bacon by using the light Perfect Italiano ricotta to go with a Sunday roast. The light ricotta cheese balanced really well with the lightly grilled asparagus and the oven roasted crispy bacon. The cheese gives the salad a nice creamy texture among all the crunch. It is very simple to toss together, definitely will do it more often.
We also had some potato wedges to go with the roast. I love my wedges especially with sour cream and sweet chili sauce. Since I don’t have sour cream at hand, that’s when the left over ricotta cheese come to rescue. It works perfectly as a dip for the wedges. It is light, creamy and is cheese, it’s gotta be good right? 
Amazingly after all this cooking and eating using Perfect Italiano ricotta, there are still heaps of them left in the fridge! So if anyone out there has any good suggestions what I can do with them, you are more than welcome to drop me a line in the comment box.
Oh yes… I also already done the Bill’s ricotta pancakes recipe too!
Anyway, whoever wants the ricotta cheesecake recipe, here goes:
Ingredients
crust
2 cups / 180 gram graham cracker crumbs (I used half scotchfingers, half gingernut. Oreo’s is also a favorite)
4 oz / 100 gram butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 gram sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
cheesecake
500 gram of ricotta cheese
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean
Methods
1. Preheat oven to 180ºC (350 degrees F).
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into 24cm springform cake tin. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine ricotta cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add vanilla and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the ramekins on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Wrap the side of the caketin with aluminium foil. Make sure water can’t leak into the crust and becomes soggy. Place ramekins into a large baking tray and pour boiling water into the tray until halfway up the side of the ramekins.
5. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
A Table For Two (ATFT) is Billy Law's food blog that features best eats in Sydney and around the world with drool-worthy food photography to salivate your appetite. I also throw in a smidgen of my food and travel photography for good measure. Billy Law also happened to be a contestant on MasterChef Australia 2011. 
Yum! might have to try this with the sh1t load of ricotta i still have! haha
x
Oh man what a spread!!! Totally bookmarking all recipes
If I never see Ricotta again it will be too soon
There is still some in the fridge…!
You could try ricotta gnocchi or fried ricotta fritters. Jamie Oliver has a few versions of these…just try googling them.
.-= Peter G´s last blog ..Giouvarlakia Revisited =-.
I like the idea for the wedges, easy enough for to me to do while still on crutches lol
.-= Howard´s last blog ..Merivale Winter Feasts Launch, Establishment =-.
cheesecake looks yum. i might try this one day. recipe looks simple enough to try for an amateur like me.
.-= Simon Food Favourites´s last blog ..The Beauchamp Hotel, Darlinghurst (20 June 2009) =-.
Mmm that looks good. I’ve been planning to do a ricotta cheesecake with a chocolate crust, Oreos is a great idea
I love that you used gingernut and scotch fingers for the crust, yum!
ricotta ricotta everywhereeeeeee haha your photos make me not want to post mine!
MY GWAD
I’m sure they are all tasty and great, but your pictures make even betterrr!
.-= Yas´s last blog ..boys and girls, dinner is ready! =-.
Ooh I see a nice thick base on the cheesecake! Mmmm cheese craving! Make me some ricotta hotcakes/cheesecake/salad/wedges thhxx
.-= FFichiban´s last blog ..Tupperware Party – One Bite More! =-.
Never would have thought to use ricotta as a replacement for sour cream.
Nice work with the cheesecake and its photo.
Oh very nice photo of the cheesecake. Those raspberries look like glossy rubies.
*licks screen*
.-= Forager´s last blog ..Gluttony redefined at Perama =-.
Yummy… everything looks so delicious and your pictures are really nice. Especially the one of the salad.
.-= Adriana´s last blog ..The pro experience, Day 1&2 =-.
@Iron Chef Shellie: Hahaha! tel me about it…. it is a never ending food story. Kill me David Bowie!
Love it!
@Trisha: Thanks Trisha even though the spread is done over 2 occasions.
@Peter: Well you just had some again tonight LOL
@Peter G: I took you suggestion and made some ricotta gnocchi! So So GOOD!
@Howard: Hehehe…. it is such a bloke thing to do.
@Simon Food Favourites: Very simple to make, give it a go!
@Steph: Yeah I’ve seen OREO for the crust, I can only imagine it will taste awesome!
@chocolatesuze: LOL post post! QUICK!
@Yas: Thanks Yas, I can’t wait to see what you can do with your DSLR!
@FFichiban: Actually the nice thick base is due to a wrong recipe given by the PR. I much prefer a thicker layer of cheese and a thin layer of crust.
@Simon: Thanks simon. Yes ricotta works like a treat with wedges!
@Forager: LOL. Hope you didn’t get static by licking the screen.
@Adriana: Thanks Adriana!