Italian Ricotta Cheesecake

By Addie

I am not overly fond of the traditional ricotta cheesecake. I mean I like it, but it doesn’t send me to the moon. The flavors are lovely, but there’s just a slight graininess and wetness about it that puts me off. When I conceived the recipe for this cheesecake, one of the things I wanted to achieve was smoother, creamier consistency – more like its New York-style cousin. Adding cream cheese didn’t work because I felt it gave the cake too much of a sharp edge. The flavor profile of an Italian cheesecake should be subtle, mellow and a little lazy, reminiscent of sunny afternoons enjoying la dolce vita in the Italian countryside with the scent of Sicilian orange blossoms wafting by on a breeze. Nope. Cream cheese wasn’t the answer. But, mascarpone was another story. Its silky, luxurious quality with the barest hint of sweet cream was exactly what my cheesecake needed! So, in this recipe I have swapped out a pound of the regularly used ricotta for mascarpone.

Besides the ricotta, another signature ingredient found in an Italian ricotta cheesecake is orange flower water. Orange flower water is a clear, perfumed distillation of fresh bitter orange blossoms that is widely used in Mediterranean dessert dishes. It is incredibly fragrant and its flavor is quite distinctive. It is more floral than citrusy. You can try using orange extract instead of orange flower water, but there really is no substitute. It’s available at most Italian and Middle Eastern markets, as well as online.

Oh, how I wish you could have been in my kitchen while my cheesecake was baking! I’m pretty sure that the heady aroma of vanilla and orange blossoms would have made you swoon. I did. And, if you had been there, you would have also gotten to taste this dreamy confection. It was marvelously smooth and rich, and yet lighter in texture than I expected it to be. The mascarpone didn’t weigh it down. It pulled the rest of the ingredients together and enhanced them. This will definitely be my “go to” ricotta cheesecake recipe, now and forever. I only wish that I could have shared a slice with my father. I know he would have loved this version just as much as Mom’s.

Ingredients

• 1 lb cream cheese
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 lb Ricotta cheese
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons lemon peel, grated
• 1 pint sour cream
• 3 Tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 4 jumbo eggs

Details

Adapted from stickygooeycreamychewy.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a pan of water on the lower rack of the oven.

Beat together the cream cheese, ricotta and sour cream. Beat in the sugar. Beat in the remaining ingredients, one at a time. Everything must be very well combined.

Pour the mixture into a greased 9-inch springform pan. If you would like, dust the pan with crushed graham crackers. It will make the cake come out easier but you won't actually have a crust.

Place the cheesecake on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 1 hour. Turn off the oven. (DO NOT open oven door). Leave cheesecake in oven for 1 hour longer.

Cool on a wire rack; refrigerate overnight. The next day, remove sides of springform pan. Top with sour cream, if desired.