The Easiest Whipped Ricotta Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is whipped ricotta made of? ›

All you need is a food processor and it'll come together in five minutes. Add the whole milk ricotta, extra virgin olive oil, honey, and sea salt to the food processor and blend until completely smooth and fluffy. Feel free to add as much or as little honey, olive oil, and salt to your taste.

Regular ricotta is a soft, grainy cheese with a slightly gritty texture, while whipped ricotta is made by blending regular ricotta with a small amount of cream or milk until it becomes smooth and airy. Whipped ricotta has a lighter, fluffier texture and a milder flavor compared to regular ricotta.

Runny ricotta can occur for a couple of reasons: 1) Your ricotta was already watery to begin with. If this is the case, I recommend straining the cheese over a cheesecloth before whipping it up. 2) You added too much liquid (either from the olive oil or heavy cream).

Cream cheese: Cream cheese is made with milk and cream, while ricotta is made with just milk. The lower fat content makes the latter cheese slightly less creamy. However, cream cheese can still be substituted for ricotta.

Cream Cheese

Cream cheese has a more dense texture than ricotta, but can work great as well as a substitute for ricotta cheese. We recommend you blend it or even whip it up with a hand mixer with a small amount of milk to achieve a smoother and lighter texture.

For extra creamy ricotta, add in an extra egg, a handful of grated parmesan, and a quarter cup of shredded mozzarella. Eggs help prevent the ricotta from drying out and serve to bind the ricotta so it doesn't become runny. One or more eggs are recommended whether you add the other ingredients mentioned here or not.

While ricotta is already creamy, it has an almost grainy and slightly crumbly texture — this must be smoothed out. Incorporating full-fat dairy, like heavy cream, will add richness to the cheese and create a lusciously sleek texture. The second is to mix these elements with precision and speed.

It's an ideal substitute for cream or whole milk in a cream sauce. George Carlberg, executive chef at Littleton Adventist Hospital, uses the ricotta sauce to turn chicken and pasta into a one-dish meal. In this recipe he uses ricotta, because “it gives the palate the feel of heavy cream but reduces the fat.”

Galbani® Double Cream Ricotta has twice the cream of regular whole milk ricotta and all the delicious taste and texture you expect plus it is made with 4 simple ingredients. The perfect ricotta to eat on its own as a decadent snack, to make extra rich desserts, and to make your regular hot ricotta dishes even better.

Whole Milk (not ultra pasteurized!): I recommend whole cow's milk for creamy flavor and texture. Alternatively, 2% or 1% milk can be used; but the final result will not be as creamy. Ultra pasteurized milk does not work for homemade ricotta. It won't curdle properly.

Why is my homemade ricotta rubbery? ›

It really matters what kind of dairy you use: organic whole milk and not ultra-pasteurized cream are preferred. I also want to emphasize the importance of timing: do not overheat the milk-cream mixture, and do not let it boil. Otherwise, you will end up with tough and rubbery curd.

You can freeze ricotta cheese, but it's not always advisable. Why? Frozen ricotta cheese has a grainier texture once it's defrosted, though its flavor is preserved. This is because the water separates from the cheese curds and forms ice crystals when frozen.

You can substitute it, but consider these few factors, there is a lot more salt in cream cheese than in ricotta so you will have to adjust the over all salt. Cream cheese is a bit more tart than ricotta.

The unique processes result in two very different products—mascarpone is a rich, decadent, and super spreadable cheese with a slight tang. Ricotta, on the other hand, has a lumpy, soft texture and mild, milky flavor.

But it will work as an effective, low-fat substitute for cream cheese with a bit of manipulation. Simply blend the ricotta in a blender or food processor until smooth, add a bit of lemon juice to mimic the tang of cream cheese, and use in any baking or cooking project.

These differences can be explained by the manufacturing process. Block cream cheese is made by adding a cheese culture to milk and cream, which causes the proteins to coagulate slowly and produces a rich, smooth mass. Whipped cream cheese is coagulated with lactic acid, a process that is quicker (and less expensive).

Commonly, fresh ricotta cheese can be made from cow's milk. However, it can also be made from goat, sheep, and water buffalo milk. Ricotta is made from whey, the liquid left over from the cheese-making process of other cheeses.

Ricotta cheese was traditionally made in Italy from the whey from sheep milk cheese, which was heated to denature and coagulate the whey proteins; the coagulated protein was scooped from the whey.