Soft ricotta cream, a delicious and very easy cream to prepare and use as a dessert, or to fill our pastries, from the iconic Sicilian cannoli to the cassata, but don’t worry: you can use it for countless desserts — on a tart, in cream puffs, in snowflake pastries, stretched with whipped cream and milk cream, even on a soft tart or to fill a sponge cake. In short it goes with everything. I love it also with whipped cream or paired with fruit jam. The recipe is very simple; let’s see how to make it. A delight with my homemade ricotta. You can prepare it classic without cream or with cream to make it fluffier and more indulgent, and even more stable by adding whipped cream when the ricotta is too soft.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 600 g (about 1 lb 5 oz) to fill a 9-inch sponge cake
- Cooking methods: No-cook
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ricotta cream ingredients
- 2 cups Ricotta (mixed, sheep or cow)
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar (or granulated) (or more according to taste and the ricotta)
- 1 tbsp chocolate chips
- to taste candied fruit (optional)
- 3/4 cup whipping cream (sweetened) (Optional)
- to taste vanilla extract (and/or cinnamon)
- 1 teaspoon wildflower honey (Optional)
Tools
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Fork
Preparation of soft ricotta cream
Drain the ricotta well — it’s better if it’s at least a day old and has been left to drain properly in a basket. Choose a good-quality ricotta that you like and that isn’t bitter. There are many on the market with a slightly bitter taste; for the cream it’s better to get ricotta from a trusted dairy. I adore sheep ricotta, but cow ricotta is fine if you don’t like the stronger sheep flavor; it’s the one indicated for many traditional Sicilian desserts and beyond.
Place the drained ricotta in a large bowl. Work it with a fork to soften it; you don’t need to sieve it, but you can if you want. Add the powdered sugar and mix well, always with the fork or a whisk. Add one ingredient at a time to the ricotta to make it creamy and fluffy. You can use more sugar if you prefer it sweeter.
Lightly flavor the ricotta cream with cinnamon, vanilla, or orange zest, but some people prefer simply chocolate chips, which I prefer, together with a little cinnamon and/or vanilla aroma. Mix well after adding each flavoring.
I always recommend tasting the cream as you add ingredients so if you want it sweeter you can add more sugar, or increase the flavorings if you want a stronger taste, but be careful not to mask the ricotta. Mix well with the fork to incorporate air into the ricotta and make it fluffier. You can also use a teaspoon of honey not only to sweeten the cream but to make it tastier; if you use honey, use a minimal amount of sugar, also because we may add sweetened cream.
To make the ricotta cream fluffier you can add cream: either whipped and folded in with a spatula using bottom-to-top motions, or unwhipped, mixed into the ricotta with a fork. Add about 1/3 cup (100 ml/3.4 fl oz) at a time and mix with the fork until you reach the right consistency, and do the same with the next 1/3 cup. It will be easier to get the right texture if you let the cream rest in the fridge for 10 minutes because the cold will help it firm up a bit.
Ideal to use raw, without reheating in the oven because the cream makes it soft; without cream it can also be used for baked desserts.
Notes
The desserts I made with ricotta cream:
Ricotta turnovers, no-bake ricotta and pistachio cold cake.
