Ricotta Cheesecake Step-by-Step
This is the traditional cheese tart my family makes for Easter. It’s served at brunch on Easter morning with lots of other eggy, bready, cheese-y dishes. Every year as it’s tasted, everyone comments on the flavour of the filling, the crust, the texture – Is it too dry? To wet? Too sweet? Not enough lemon? Too much cinnamon?
My version usually passes the test, or I haven’t heard about it if it wasn’t as good as Grandma’s! The speculation over how it turns out could be mitigated if there was an actual recipe to follow, but as in most traditional foods, the outcome is determined by how closely you have paid attention to the past and how many times you have attempted it yourself.
I have an Italian Easter Brunch Menu story that features this tart in the upcoming April issue. I developed a standard recipe for it so maybe the debate can be settled once and for all – but knowing my family I’d doubt that!
This Ricotta Cheese Tart along with Ricotta Cookies, a rich Egg and Parmesan Soup with Croutons , Taralli, and a savoury Frittata with Bacon and Green Onions are all part of my family’s Easter Brunch.
You’ll find the recipes for these dishes in the April 2009 issue of Canadian Living.
The recipe for this delicious Swiss Chard Double Crust Pizza is online and is also a favourite part of our brunch. 
The tart I made for the magazine isn’t as deep as the one in this picture, but I designed it to fit in a spring form tart shell to make it easier to handle. Sometimes this tart is made without a crust at all. It is traditionally cut into diamond shapes and can also be baked in a pie dish. I like to use a big 10 inch cake pan so that it comes out high and majestic but it makes it a bit tricky to finish the edge and get out of the pan. The pictures show how I do it.
I have a baking question for you…
I have stopped using shortening in an attempt to elimminate trans fats from my diet. When I bake a recipe that calls for shortening, can I substitute butter? I have tried this with a few recipes. Some have turned out ok but some cookie recipes have resulted in cookies that spread too much and were very thin & flat.
Any suggestions on how to adapt recipes to using butter instead of shortening?
1. June Says:
February 27th, 2009 at 10:12 am edit
I wouldn’t mind if you could give a break down of the nutritional count in the pie. I think Ricotta is either low fat or no fat??
I often make a spinach quiche without the crust…
and I add fat free cottage cheese.
thanks for all the good receipes and tips.
June
June – The march issue has this recipe with the nutritional analysis.
Ricotta is like milk, you can get it with varying fat contents, I tend to use a whole milk ricotta when I’m baking to get a richer flavour – it is dessert after all! But you can use a lower fat ricotta or a no fat ricotta, but try to use a good quality ricotta, read the ingredient list to see if it has fillers and stabilizers.
Cottage cheese is not a good substitute for ricotta, it doesn’t have the same sweet flavour or smooth and dense consistency.
Christine my mom makes all those easter ricotta/cheese goodies I see in your photo. Try to get a straight recipe from her though and forget it. She says she does it by memory and by eye. Well every time she gives me the “recipe” it doesn’t turn out. I am looking forward to you sharing these recipes with us so I can finally do it myself. Wouldn’t that blow my mom away to taste my version (or your vesion) lol.
Also, Christine do you have an easter bread recipe?
Christine – I know, you have to be a magician to decifer their recipes! Try these – I want hear how you make out. We do have a family Easter Bread recipe but same thing – it is not standardized. I would have to play with it to get it to something I could pass on. The one my family makes has anise seed in it but my aunt makes one that you decorate with unshelled hard boiled eggs that are baked right into the bread.
I know a Palomba is a traditional Italian Easter bread but we never made that – what does your family make it?
Here’s a link to a Greek Easter bread that is might fit the bill – the bread dough would be a good starting point and you could flavour and shape it as you like.
http://www.canadianliving.com/food/cooking_school/cooking_class_greek_easter_bread.php
Christine – My mother makes a ricotta cheese cake that that I absolutely love. The problem is that she does it by memeory and it taste slightly different each time. Sometimes its to lemony or to much cinnamon, to wet,or she over cooks it. Do you happen to have a recipe for this type of cheese cake??
Thanks
Oh, I forgot to mention her cheese cake is crustless!
Toni – sounds remarkably like the one that I developed for this story. Get the magazine, it has the recipe in it. You don’t have to bake the filling in a crust, you can just bake it as is if that’s how your mom does it – I’ve also baked it in a pie plate with great success.
KrisT
Yes butter works well any place that shortening is used. The thing about shortening is that it is more stable than butter so it will hold up better at room temperature say in something like a buttercream – but that also means you get that nasty mouth coating quality instead of a melt in your mouth consistency that butter has.
To get better results in cookies, chill the batter before you bake it – this will slow down the spread and help the cookies keep their shape.
One other item I feel I must tell you – butter does contain some trans fat, however it is a significantly lower amount than shortening. They both are a saturated fat and infact butter is higher than shortening or margarine in saturated fat. There are varying opinions on whether one or the other is preferable from a health stand point.
I personally believe that the sticky trans fats are much more problematic than trans fat free saturated fat, but I know that some nutritionists would flatly disagree with me and say that the higher saturated fat content in butter makes it the less desireable choice.
Just thought you should have all the facts!
Hi:
These recipes look grest. However having to watch my sugar and cholesterol intake, I was wondering if there are suggestions you can provide me that would accomodate my issues so that I could still enjoy the taralli, cheesecake etc.How can I alter these recipes to accomodate my problems and maybe million of other people?
thanks.
F.
Francesca,
None of these recipes are really high in sugar – you can always substitute a sugar replacement. However they are all high in eggs, so the cholesterol would be an issue.
If you like the idea of the taralle try the Canadian Living soft pretzel recipe, you might enjoy it.
http://www.canadianliving.com/food/soft_pretzels.php
Christine,
I believe that the Italian Easter Bread mentioned
is called COLOMBA not Palomba
Ciao
Sunny