Chocolate Ricotta Cheesecake

Italian cheesecake is one of the easiest Italian desserts to make, and yes, one can add raisins, orange, or pine nuts. Still, I recall my grandmother’s simple version, made with goat’s milk ricotta and minimal sugar, and it was delicious. In the American cream cheese version, with a much smoother consistency, it is common, but an Italian will willingly partake of the crumbly consistency of ricotta cheesecake any time.#LidiasRecipes #LidiasItaly #LidiasKitchen #LidiaBastianich #ItalianFood #LidiasTheArtofPasta #LidiasOliveOil

Ricotta Cheesecake

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[Music] Torta de ricott al chocolato the quintessential Italian dessert anora cholato. I am going to add chocolate and make it a chocolate ricott cheesecake. So let’s melt the chocolate here in a double boiler. We’re going to add some heavy cream to that. I’m going to add some cocoa to it. Uh because I want it extra chocolatey. You know, I said anora chocolato, more chocolate. And the importance is here that we get it all very smooth. Okay. So, let’s prepare the spring form. And we’re going to butter it well. All the corners and everything. Well, add to it breadrumbs. And the breadcrumbs could be breadcrumbs, could be panco, could be cookie crumbs, anything. And so you want to get it all around just like that. You want to make sure that every part is coated nice and well. Some eggs. Get the eggs first. Sugar and some salt. And let’s get that going. [Music] So, you want the sugar really to dissolve with the eggs and kind of whip up. We’ll add the orange rind. You could add lemon rind, but I like the orange in it. Let’s get that in there. Okay. And then we’ll add the ricott. The ricott, you notice here, it’s been draining. It’s important that you get a nice kind of drier ricott so your cheesecake is not too watery. So make sure that you drain the ricott like that. And we’ll put it right in the mixture. [Music] And it doesn’t need all that much mixing because the ricott is a little grainy and the cheesecake remains. And actually that’s what I like in the ricotta cheesecake that it has that texture. But now we’re going to make a chocolate. Let’s add the chocolate. [Music] It is all done. [Music] So, we are ready to to pour it right in. This is a cake that is quite easy. Certainly around the holidays, we make it all the time. So, 375° hot oven and for about an hour, an hour and 15 minutes until the sort of the the wiggle kind of stops and it’s you see that it’s solid. It will puff up and then it will fall down somewhat, but that’s the way it is. So, let’s get it into the oven. At Beco, we use a couple of different raortas. We make a ricatina cheesecake with ricottan pasta and cream cheese. And we were making this same cake for 26 years. And people keep coming back cuz it’s very consistent. And people like consistency. Yeah. We do it seasonally. We change it up with toppings. Sometimes we make like a fruit compost sometimes. We use riotta in cheesecake. We use it in raviolis. We use it in a canoli and we use about three to four different kinds of regotta cheese. The cheesecake it’s ready. I let it cool at room temperature and now we’re ready to taste it. Let’s cut a nice slice. Just like that. A nice sharp long knife will do. Just like that. [Music] Voila. You see how chocolatey and moist. M. So, what would I like to decorate it with? Very simply, whipped cream and sweetened or unsweetened, depends. And just a dollop on top. And I like it when the whipped cream just kind of saddles the cake. Some chocolate. We said more chocolate. I like to drizzle the chocolate around the cake, on top of the whipped cream. And you can always leave the chocolate, the sauce, the whipped cream on the side. People can always add more to it. Some toasted almonds. If you don’t have almonds, you can use walnuts. Hazelnuts would go great with this. So, this is the way I would simply serve it. And this is the way I think I’m going to get myself a piece. Just like that. Whipped cream. Yes, I like my whipped cream. Chocolate sauce. Absolutely. Some toasted almonds. And I am ready. Today we did quite a few crowdleasers. I’m quite pleased with myself. Are you pleased? Well, let me taste. Let’s taste. [Music] M. Really good. Really good. And on that note, I want to invite you [Music] [Music] To learn more about Lydia, access to videos, and to get recipes, tips, techniques, and much more, visit us online at lydasitilly.com. [Music]