What can I do with all this ricotta?
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What can I do with all this ricotta?
| Tue, 02-22-2005 - 12:06pm |
In my search to find a ricotta that I enjoy for dessert, I've filled my fridge with the 'losers' as well. Any suggestions on what to do with those ricottas that were too gritty? My first inclincation is lasagna. Any good SBD-friendly recipes for lasagna? How about other recipe ideas for this stuff?
Thanks!

I love Eggplant Lasagna. There is a recipe here on the board - but I actually do it a little differently, I don't really follow a recipe, I just make a ricotta filling (1 cup ricotta, 1 egg, parmesan cheese, pepper) Then I layer roasted eggplant slices with the ricotta, and a homemade tomato sauce w/ground beef or turkey, and shredded mozzarella cheese (basically just like regular lasagna you just replace the noodles with roasted eggplant slices) Its my dh's favorite thing I have made since being on SBD and I have to make it for him about once a week!
Another recipe w/ricotta is the Chicken Capri in the SBD cookbook. I'm not sure if its already here on the board! And there is a Spinach Dumpling recipe in the cookbook with ricotta. You could use it in a spinach casserole recipe that calls for cottage cheese and substitute it for that.
2 pkgs frozen chopped spinach
2 cups fat free cottage cheese (sub ricotta)
1/2 cup egg substitute (equal to 2 eggs)
1/2 cup fat free parmesan cheese
Optional: 2 cups sliced mushrooms
Cook spinach until heated through. Drain very thoroughly, pressing into a colander or squeezing out the excess water. (Sauté mushrooms using cooking spray and/or butter spray.) Combine the cottage cheese, egg substitute, and parmesan cheese in bowl. Mix in spinach. Pour into a 9 inch pie pan or into 6 individual baking dishes which have been sprayed with nonstick spray. Sprinkle casserole with a little parmesan and paprika.
Bake at 375* for 25 to 30 minutes, or until firm and lightly browned at the edges.
Or ricotta cheesecake, or ricotta crepes. I haven't tried the crepes, I don't remember where I got the recipe:
2 Eggs or equivalent Egg subsitute
2 Tbspn's Ricotta Cheese
1/2 tspn Vanilla Extract
1/2 tspn Splenda (optional)
Beat the eggs and blend in the other ingredients.
Spray an 8" omelette pan w/ PAM and preheat. Pour
mixture into pan and allow to set as you would an omelette.
Flip over once and continue cooking until no longer runny.
Serve with filling (fruit, yogurt, ricotta creme) and fold over.
I also love to just mix ricotta into my regular tomato sauce and put it on ww pasta, spaghetti squash or anything you would put tomato sauce on! Just makes it creamier and "richer". We used to go through pounds and pounds a week when I was a kid!
MichaelAnn
spring06sig2
This may sound crazy but....
try heating the ricotta in the microwave and then adding the flavorings to make a dessert.
Stuffed veggies!
Ricotta with herbs and veggies of any category makes a great cheesy stuffed veggie bake.
You can stuff: portabellas, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini boats (hollow out a "ditch" in the center of your zucchinis, use the scrapings for part of the filling or something else), eggplants, etc etc etc...
Since ricotta doesn't have a strong taste of it's own, you can use Italian herbs and veggies (I personally like Italian herbs with spinach, onions, and mushrooms); or make an Indian curry with peppers, onions, curry powder, cumin; Any kind of flavor blend will do ya! I usually throw in either another cheese or a bit of plain yogurt, depending on what flavor blend I'm working with, very yummy.
And like Cathy said, baking will take care of most of the grittiness, and the rest you won't notice so much because you'll have diced veggies in there to add texture as well.
Shan
My mother always used to make eggplant lasagna, and I never liked it. Then again, I never liked eggplant. But my brothers and sisters used to eat the stuff up, so if you like eggplant, you'll probably really like it.
But I looooooooooooooooooove lasagna, as it is my signature dish. I have made lasagna once since being on SBD with low-carb lasagna noodles, and it made me really gassy! I only had two servings out of the whole thing over a few days and let my bf have the rest! But what I have done a couple of times is cook up some ground sirloin, mix ricotta and tomato sauce together, microwave the ricotta mix (covered) until hot (~3 minutes), then mix in the ground beef (after draining it), top with shredded part-skim mozzarella, and microwave for another minute. Voila! Lasagna without the noodles! You can adjust amounts of ingredients to your liking and to how much food you need to make. Also reheats wonderfully :)
Have fun!
Becca
On the Beach Since September 8, 2008
My favorite way to serve any ricotta is banana cream "pie".
Mix:
Ricotta 1/4 cup or so
1 T banana SF instant pudding or vanilla with some banana extract
FF milk - the same amount as ricotta
A little FF Half and half 3 T or so
Dash of vanilla
Splenda if needed to adjust sweetness
Blend WELL with hand blender
Refrigerate
Serve with chopped walnuts, banana's and FF whipped topping.
Just as good as pie! Using the hand blender smooths it all out!
Lisa.
Just wanted to bump this back up in case someone missed this because this is AWESOME. I make a big batch of this and put it in individual serving bowls. DH and DS love it too.
The way I've been making this is to use the ricotta, pudding mix, milk and SF syrup. Mix and refrigerate. Tastes like the middle of a creme pie.
I've done different mixtures too...
Banana pudding with vanilla syrup
Banana pudding with chocolate syrup
Chocolate pudding with chocolate syrup
Butterscotch pudding with caramel syrup
Vanilla pudding with caramel syrup
the possibilities are endless :-)
In a pinch, I'll grab an individual serving and a piece of fruit for breakfast. Oh, my.
HTH!
Michelle