If you’ve never tried an Italian Ricotta Cheesecake you don’t know what you’re missing. Top it with fresh berries and you’ve got a dessert of legendary status!
updated from original post July 3, 2010
Ricotta Cheesecakes are not the same as a New York style cheesecake. They’re not a sweet and not creamy in the same way. I didn’t want to say not as creamy, because it’s still freaking awesomely creamy!
The real secret to making a ricotta cheesecake extra cream is adding mascarpone. Which for lack of a better term is Italian cream cheese. Adding in sour cream or Greek yogurt adds a little of the flavor you’ve come to expect from a New York style cheesecake.
What ingredients do I need to make a Ricotta Cheesecake?
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make an Authentic Ricotta Cheesecake with Berries. In Chef Speak this is called the “Mise en Place” which translates to “Everything in its Place”.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed the up cooking process, but it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
*If you’re not familiar with digestive biscuits I like to think of them as Adult Graham Crackers.
How do I make a Ricotta Cheesecake?
The first step is making the crust for the cheesecake. In a food processor, grind up the pistachios, then remove from them from the processor. Add the graham crackers and grind to a fine meal.
Melt one 6 tablespoons of butter and add the melted butter and sugar to the ground pistachios and graham crackers, mix well.
*The mixture should be wet enough to form but not so wet that it oozes butter.
Form the crust into your springform pan and bake at 375 degrees for about 7 minutes.
In your mixer, blend together the ricotta cheese, mascarpone, and Greek yogurt. Blend until the mixture is smooth.
Add the eggs one at a time until well blended. Next, add the sugar, flour, salt, grated lemon peel, lemon juice, and vanilla. Blend well until very creamy.
Pour the cheesecake batter into a prepared Springform pan (with baked crust) and bake at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes in a conventional oven or until the cake has set in the middle.
**The top of the cheesecake can get brown. If you’re not topping the cheesecake or prefer a lighter top, cover the cheesecake with foil for half of the time in the oven.
After the cheesecake has fully cooled, you can start adding the strawberries around the outer edge of the cheesecake. Cut the bottoms off the strawberries so they sit nicely on the cheesecake.
Next add the blueberries to the center of the cheesecake, making sure they are at least two deep. Spoon the prepared glaze over top of the strawberries and blueberries.
*You can use a brush to make sure all of the strawberries are coated with the glaze,
Refrigerate the cheesecake for at least 4 hours or overnight. The cheesecake will be soft and crumble unless you give it time to set up.
You’re going to love the texture and flavor of this Ricotta Cheesecake. This Italian Classic is a delicious version of one of America’s favorite desserts!
More Cheesecake Recipes You’ll Love!
- Restaurant Style Cheesecake
- Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars with a toffee crust
- Blood Orange Ricotta Cheesecake
- Chocolate Cheesecake Bars with Pecan Shortbread Crust
Ricotta Cheesecake
Equipment
Ingredients
Crust for Cheesecake
- 1 ¼ cup graham cracker crumbs
- ½ cup pistachios toasted
- 6 tablespoon Unsalted Butter melted
- ¼ cup Sugar
Ricotta Cheesecake
- 16 oz ricotta cheese full fat or low fat
- 16 oz mascarpone *or cream cheese if you can find mascarpone
- 8 oz Greek yogurt *or sour cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 large eggs
- 2 tablespoon flour
- grated peel of one lemon
- juice from one half lemon
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon salt
Topping for Cheesecake
- 1 pint strawberries whole berries
- ½ Pint blueberries more if desired
- 1 cup red fruit juice
- juice of one lemon
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 1½ tablespoon corn starch
Instructions
Crust for Cheesecake
- In a food processor, grind up the pistachios and remove from the processor. Then add the dgraham crackers and grind to a fine meal.
- Melt 6 tablespoons of butter and add the butter and sugar to the ground pistachios and graham crackers, mix well.*The mixture should be wet enough to form but not so wet that it oozes butter.
- Form crust into your springform pan and bake at 375 degrees for about 7 minutes. *Allow to cool before adding the cheesecake batter.
Ricotta Cheesecake
- In your mixer blend together the ricotta cheese, mascarpone, and Greek yogurt. Blend until the mixture is smooth.
- Add the eggs one at a time until well blended.
- Add the sugar, flour, salt, grated lemon peel, lemon juice, and vanilla.
- Blend well until very creamy. Pour mixture into prepared Springform pan and Bake at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes in a conventional oven, or until the cake has set in the middle. The top of the cheesecake can get brown. If you're not topping the cheesecake or prefer a lighter top, cover the cheesecake with foil for half of the time in the oven.
Topping for Cheesecake
- Wash the strawberries and blueberries, allow to dry on paper towels.
- Cut the tops off the dried strawberries and place around the outside of the cheesecake, fill the inside with blueberries. They should be at least two deep in the middle of the Strawberries.
- Place all but ¼ cup of the juice and lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan, heat to a near boil. Mix corn starch, into remaining juice and make into a slurry, add the slurry to the heated juice and bring to a low boil. The mixture should start to clear as it thickens. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then spoon over the berries.
- Refrigerate the cheesecake for at least 4 hours or overnight. The cheesecake will be soft and crumble unless you give it time to set up! I know it's hard to resist but it will be worth it!!
Natalia
Wow! What a nice cheesecake, never tried one with ricotta but definitely will try this one! Thank you for the recipe.
Bernice Hill
It’s been ages since I’ve had cheesecake but I do prefer the lightness that ricotta brings to this classic. Those berries make a stunning addition visually and in flavour too.
Kay
The perfect summer dessert 🙂
Gloria
Ricotta cheese is such a great ingredient. Perfect for cheese cakes. This looks like one delicious dessert. Party perfect.
Nancy Bates
Is it possible for you to please include in your Recipes, the measurement conversion of the ingredients equivalent of ounces to cups, grams to cups and oven temperature Foreign height to Celsius.
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Nancy
at the bottom of the ingredients in the recipe card is a toggle for metric conversion. As for temperature, it should be around 190 C.
Sameer S Nilatkar
Awesome recipe Chef. A crafty and easy to make dessert. Keep posting. Thanks.
Cathy
I had to make a couple of minor adjustments due to the unavailability of ingredients. We used 28 ounces of ricotta, 16 ounces cream cheese and 2 ounces of greek yogurt. I used all of the other ingredients as listed. The cheesecake came out delicious. Creamy and light tasting.
Online cake delivery
step by step explation is good.
It looks so wonderful and tasty, well I was thinking to make something special during the weekend but now I am sure what to make in the weekend to make it special. thanks to you I was able to learn this awesome recipe
Rozann cupidiro
Love the sound of your ricotta cheesecake I made one last night for Easter and I actually thought about putting in marscapone but I didn’t have any in the house so I use my usual straight ricotta but I also use lemon rind the lemon juice like you a lot of vanilla and fresh nutmeg what would you suggest or a topping I think it’s wonderful without a topping because of the nut Meg and vanilla and lemon combination but if you would put a tapping on it what would you use thank you
Jodee Weiland
This recipe looks fabulous! Rich and creamy, this cheesecake would take first place in my home! Thanks for sharing!
Chef Dennis Littley
Thank you Jodee, it is one of my favorites!
ctmpsyd
My favorite greek yogurt brand comes in a lemon flavor. It ocurred to me that the flavor and texture would be perfect for a ricotta cheesecake, so I went online searching for a recipe to use as a starting point. I found this blog post, and used the lemon yogurt in your filling recipe (instead of lemon juice and zest). Oh yum!! I am not ashamed to say I am eating it for breakfast with some fresh berries! I used a pre-made graham cracker crust, so I still have enough filling from the recipe to make a 2nd pie!
Cooking Rookie
I made the cheesecake or more precisely mini cheesecakes. I did not have all the ingredients and had to make a lot of substitutions and also I made them in small muffin tins – a big mistake, they collapsed when I tried to release them.
I posted my results here (http://cookingrookie.blogspot.com/2011/04/mini-ricotta-cheesecakes.html) and recommended checking out your post for a much better recipe :-).
Cooking Rookie
This recipe got to me just in time – I am looking for ways to use up my farmers cheese, very similar to ricotta, and now I know what it will be made into :-).
Thanks so much! If my result will be post-worthy I'll link back to you, hope it's ok 🙂
thelonelyradish.com
This looks like the kind of recipe that made that day. I enjoy it with you.
Vicki
This looks (and sounds) delicious!!! I can't wait to try it! However I suspect it won't look as pretty as what you've done here ;)! Great job!