Sweet Ricotta Cheesecake - Torta di Ricotta

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Pillowy soft ricotta and fresh lemon zest come together to create this light and airy filling for this traditional Abruzzese Torta di Pasqua.

Ingredients:

Pastry:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/4 sticks butter, cold
• 1 pound all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest

Filling:

• 5 eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 pounds DeLallo Whole Milk ricotta, well drained
• Zest of 3 lemons
• 1 tablespoon flour, sifted
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Directions:

For the pastry dough:

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs with a whisk until light in color.  

In a separate bowl, work together 1/2 of the flour, lemon zest and all of the butter, cutting it in with a fork, leaving chunks of butter. Mix the flour mixture into the beaten sugar and eggs. Add in the remaining flour while gently working the dough.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured working board. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour a little at a time. Gently form the dough into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 300˚F.

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar very well for the filling, until they are light in color and fall off a spoon in ribbons. Slowly fold in the ricotta until the mixture is very smooth. Add the lemon zest, flour and cornstarch, mixing well. 

In a separate mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until they form peaks, and then gently fold into the filling mixture.  

Remove pastry dough from the refrigerator. Cut into 6 equal pieces (for mini bundt cakes). 

Pass each piece though a pasta machine the same number of passes, starting with the largest opening working down 2 dial turns. This dough is very delicate; be careful when handling. If it breaks, just patch together. 

Grease and flour the mini bundt pans, or 1 large pan. Lay each piece of rolled dough into each pan. If you need to break the sheets of dough in order to create the circular crust, do so, and just patch when you are finished. Leave some dough hanging over the edges. 

Fill each pan lined with dough with the ricotta filling and gently fold the excess dough over top to form a top. 

Bake for 1 hour or until golden.

Makes 6 mini bundt cakes, or 1 full size bundt pan Send to friend Printer-friendly version