Ricotto cheese...what can I do with it?

ashby

If you want something outrageous! There is a Xmas thingee the Italians do, you get one of those yummy pannadorro things hollow it out leaving an external thickness of about an inch, having first taken an inch slice off the bottom. You fill this case with ricotta into which you mix a nice alcohol, brandy grand marnier, whatever you fancy, chunks of dark chocolate and some good quality chopped glace fruits. It should be left overnight in the fridge to "set" before consumption. :rotfl:

tawnyowls

bulchy wrote:

Heres how we made the spinach and ricotta canelloni:

250g tub of ricotta
4 blocks of bonduelle frozen spinach (no batteries in scales to weigh spinach)
tubes of canelloni, (we ended up filling 11)

Spinach & ricotta is a classic, and also works very well as the filling for a quiche, and in filo pastry triangles (like samosas).

sloppychops

How about Maltese cheese cakes (Pastizzi).

http://www.!!!!!!.com/mt2/bernice/pastry/recipe201.html

bulchy

Sorry, no tips on how to fill the tubes easily, like frugalfairy says, use a teaspoon and yes the tubes crack, a friend of mine uses pancakes instead of pasta, but I personally prefer canelloni tubes, cracked or not :rotfl:
fluffynit, if your feeling impatient, you could try making it with pancakes, will save you waiting until you next go shopping.
Sue

Rachie_B

can also use flour tortillas instead of pasta

just fill and roll up like pancakes

tortilla bake we call it in this house lol

ricotta we use for spinach and ricotta : pizza / lasagne / canelloni / quiche / omelette

im not veggie but i lurve spinach lol

tawnyowls

frugalfairy wrote:

I'm not bulchy so I hope she doesn't mind me butting in I fill cannelloni tubes with a teaspoon, takes ages and the pasta tubes often crack when I'm trying to stuff them :rolleyes:

Make an icing tube out of a freezer bag - load in the filling, snip the corner off and squeeeeeze!

Lucie_2

fluffynit wrote:

I intended to buy mascarpone but the ricotta was half the price of it.

My understanding is that they're essentially the same thing, but marscapone is made with full cream milk & ricotta is skimmed, hence why it's cheaper.
Great for puddings as well as savoury pasta dishes - tiramisu is my favourite.

ashby

Lucie wrote:

My understanding is that they're essentially the same thing,

Well ........... only in the sense that clotted cream and cottage cheese are the same.
Ricotta (I believe) means "recooked" it's made by heating the milk twice once before the curds are separated then again after. It's low in fat (for a cheese) and is basically Italian cottage cheese, just like most italian foods several times more delicious than the UK equivalent. :eek: controversy!!
Mascarpone is not really a cheese as such but cream with a culture, similar to making yogurt, or I suppose creme fraiche. So it's extremely high in fat and wonderful to eat in small amounts if you don't want to be the size of a house.
Certainly for a some recipes you can substitute ricotta for mascarpone if you want a low fat version, I wouldn't fancy Tiramisu made with it but that's just a personal preference.
A slab of Ricotta with some fresh fruit is a lovely way to end a meal.

Wizwoo

I love ricotta - have a look here for recipes:
http://www.waitrose.com/food_drink/recipes/recipesearch/index.asp
and type in ricotta as your keyword. Quite a few different things to try.

Ww