Holy Ricotta Cheesecake, Batman!

            Yes, you read that correctly: ricotta cheesecake AKA Italian cheesecake AKA authentic (old timey) cheesecake. This fluffy, thick cake doesn’t even have a crust to infringe upon the filling. It’s pretty intense. In addition, I topped it with Moosewood’s super simple berry sauce for maximum deliciousness. The whole dessert was for a Christmas potluck; so again the pressure was on to bring it and bring it good.

Looks appetizing, doesn't it? 

            In addition to a humongous pile of ricotta cheese (see left), the cake includes grated lemon rind, lemon juice, almond extract (which smells horrendous but apparently tastes wonderful), vanilla extract, and all your normal cake stuff like sugar, eggs, and flour. The lemon juice and zest makes the whole concoction smell amazeballs and the heavenly scent spreads through your whole apartment. It’s perfection.

The recipe calls for 2 lbs. of ricotta cheese or two 15oz containers. I found the 15oz containers in Kroger but then saw a double size one, which I bought. But then when I got back to the apartment, I noticed it said 1 lb. But it also said 30oz. So I have no idea if it was the correct amount or not, but it seemed fine when I was mixing it all together. I think two of those containers would be an all too ridiculous pile of cheese.

            When mixing everything together, you can toss it all in a blender or use a hand mixer (which I did). Since there are really only 2 steps—mix and bake—this is a hard recipe to screw up. And it yields fantastic results.

            The hardest part of making the berry sauce was waiting for the berries to defrost. I bought a bag of mixed berries (blue-, rasp-, and black-) from Trader Joe’s a few weeks ago because I thought I was going to use them for something else. I was a little worried about freezer burn since it’s been awhile, but the bag was never opened I figured it’d be okay. But you do have to let them defrost for a bit first. Then it’s just a quick blenderization of the berries, some sugar, and lemon juice. You also have to strain the sauce to get rid of the seeds, which is a cluster and a half. I don’t have a sieve that’s narrow enough so I decided to use a piece of cheesecloth over a colander. This failed epically, so I decided to blenderize the sauce as much as possible and forgo straining. It was a little seedy but still good and perfectly paired with the cheesecake.

            Now, I should say that calling these cheesecake is a bit of a lie. It does not taste like cheesecake. It’s less creamy than typical cheesecake and is fluffier and almost echoes angel food cake in taste. I still think it’s good, but a few people were kind of put off by it. So make sure you warn your tasters that this is not your average cheesecake. Also, don’t pull a me and forget to warn people with nut allergies about the almond extract!