Italian Style Cheesecake - with Ricotta Cheese (Photos)

The wife (MHNBPF) makes two different cheesecake recipes - New York style and Italian style. She is the authority on this stuff and I know the the recipes are very much different, but my opinion is that the main difference is the type of cheese used. New York style uses Cream Cheese and Italian uses Ricotta. Yesterday, she made Italian. The way she makes it relies on whipped egg whites to give a very light consistency to the finished cheesecake.

This cheesecake has no crust (no gram crackers).

You will need:

30 ounces of Ricotta Cheese (whole milk) - 2 - 15 ounce containers. This is no time to use low fat product
6 eggs at room temperature - you will separate the yolks from the whites.
2/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons lemon zest - it will probably take two large lemons to get this much zest

A spring-form pan, lightly oiled and preheated oven at 325 degrees f.



Shave the lemon zest - takes two lemons - avoid the white (bitter) and only zest away the yellow from the lemons.



Separate the 6 egg yolks from the whites.



Cream yolks with 2/3 cup sugar, until nice and smooth.



Mix in 30 ounces of Ricotta Cheese and 1 Tablespoon Vanilla.



In a separate bowl, Whip room temperature egg whites, until they form stiff peaks.





Add whites to yolk and cheese mixture



by gently folding them into the mixture. Do not over mix, because the intent is to keep the batter light/fluffy.







Add batter to lightly oiled spring form pan





and into preheated 325 degree oven - center rack.



Cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes. I guess that is 80 minutes. The cake will double in height, maybe an inch above the top of the pan.

and then in the first five minutes of cooling on a rack, it will fall about an inch. That is simply what cheese cake does.



Sadly, the cake needs to be cooled on a rack until it reaches room temperature and then in the refrigerator maybe as long as overnight. It is served cold.

Served here with powdered sugar and chocolate syrup - Isn't that pretty!



My piece:



I will end on a philosophical note. The world needs more cheesecake with powdered sugar and chocolate syrup.


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