David Roccos Torta Di Ricotta Recipes

DAVID ROCCO'S TORTA DI RICOTTA

Steps:

• Refrigerate ricotta cheese in a strainer over night so that excess moisture is removed. In a mixing bowl, blend ricotta cheese and 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar with a hand mixer until it becomes a velvety consistency. In a separate bowl, whip 35% whipping cream with 1/2 tablespoon of sugar. Gently fold whipped cream into ricotta mixture along with bittersweet chocolate. Spread filling into piecrust.
• In a saucepan, heat sugar and 2 cups of water. Once the sugar has dissolved, add pears and let cook until soft and caramelized. Remove pears from pan and let cool. Cut pears into slices and fan the slices on top of the pie filling until the surface of the pie is covered. Fill in gaps with extra pieces of pear if necessary.
• In another saucepan, heat remaining water and apricot jelly. Stir and cook until jelly is liquefied so that it can be used as a glaze. Spread apricot glaze over pears and let pie rest in fridge for 4 hours before serving.

CROSTATA DI RICOTTA

Steps:

• For the pastry: Sift together the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl. Combine the butter, egg yolks, whole egg and lemon zest in a separate bowl. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and then knead into a dough. Let rest 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• For the filling: Whip the egg whites with 1/2 of the sugar to stiff peaks in a mixing bowl. Whip the remaining sugar, ricotta and lemon zest together in a separate bowl, and then gently fold into the egg whites.
• Roll out the pastry and fit into a pie plate. Spread the ricotta filling into the crust, sealing with more pastry as you would a pie. Bake 15 to 20 minutes.

CARLA'S TORTA DI RICOTTA

Steps:

• Refrigerate the ricotta cheese in a strainer overnight so that the excess moisture is removed. In a mixing bowl, blend the ricotta cheese and 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar with a hand mixer until it becomes a velvety consistency. In a separate bowl, whip the cream with 1/2 tablespoon of sugar. Gently fold in the whipped cream into the ricotta mixture along with the bittersweet chocolate. Spread the filling into the piecrust and refrigerate.
• In a saucepan, heat the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar and 2 cups of water. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the pears and gently simmer until soft when pierced with a knife. Remove the pears from the pan and let cool. Cut the pears into slices and fan the slices on top of the pie filling, until the surface of the pie is covered. Fill in the gaps with extra pieces of pear, if necessary.
• In another saucepan, heat the remaining 1 cup water and apricot jam. Stir and cook until the jelly is liquefied, so that it can be used as a glaze. Spread the apricot glaze over the pears and let the pie rest in the refrigerator for 4 hours before serving.

TORTA DI RICOTTA

Steps:

• First prepare pastry dough: In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat flour, margarine or butter, sugar, Marsala, salt, and egg yolks just until mixed. Shape dough into a ball. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Into 10 inch by 2 1/2 inch springform pan, press three-fourths of dough onto bottom and up side of pan to within 3/4 inch of top; keep remaining dough refrigerated. Bake crust 15 minutes or until golden; cool in pan on wire rack.
• While crust is cooling, prepare filling: Into large bowl, press ricotta through fine sieve. With mixer at medium speed, beat ricotta just until smooth; slowly beat in sugar, scraping bowl often with rubber spatula. Add heavy or whipping cream, flour, vanilla extract, salt, eggs, orange and lemon peel; beat until well blended, occasionally scraping bowl. Pour cheese mixture into crust.
• On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll out remaining dough into 10 inch by 5 inch rectangle. Cut dough lengthwise into ten 1/2 inch wide strips. Place 5 dough strips about 1 inch apart across filling. Arrange remaining strips at right angles to make a lattice. Trim ends of strips even with crust.
• Bake cheesecake 1 1/4 hours. Turn off oven; let cheesecake remain in oven 1 hour. Remove cheesecake from oven; cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or until well chilled.
• When cheesecake is firm, with spatula, loosen pan side from cheesecake and remove; loosen cake from pan bottom; slide onto plate.
• Sprinkle cheesecake with confectioners' sugar. Arrange orange twists around cake.
• 16 servings. Begin early in day or day ahead to make this recipe.
• The Good Housekeeping Desserts.