Creamy ricotta is a recipe superhero. Good ricotta, that is. We taste tested nine supermarket brands and found several stellar cheeses and some truly terrible ones.
Plenty of people think ricotta is good for little else than lasagna layering, manicotti filling or cheesecake baking. That’s because they’ve yet to experience those fluffy clouds of cheesiness in lemon-blueberry pancakes, stirred into pasta, dolloped on pizza or slathered on toast. They just don’t know. Yet.
Originally a peasant food made from leftover whey, ricotta may not pack the same cachet as Parmesan or Gouda, but it’s a recipe game-changer, an instant dose of fresh richness for just about any dish, sweet or savory. And the best part? It’s a relatively healthy cheese: 1/4 cup has 100 calories and just a touch of salt.
In Italy, ricotta is made from the whey of cow, sheep, goat or water buffalo milk, but for this taste test, we stuck with what’s found on store shelves here — cow’s milk ricotta. While all the brands we tried have the same basic ingredients, differences in flavor and texture are stark. Some are grainy and moist, akin to cottage cheese. Others are fluffy and moist — or dense and buttery.
Great ricotta is light, creamy and slightly grainy, but so velvety smooth that it coats the tongue with fresh milky deliciousness. The worst supermarket version tastes like flavor-free Jell-O, misted with cleaning solution. Here’s the scoop on the best ricotta available here — and the cheeses to avoid. Nutrition information refers to 1/4 cup. And one more thing: Ricotta is a fresh cheese and has a lot of moisture, so it’s highly perishable, lasting only days in the fridge.This BelGioioso brand made with milk from Oregon is creamy and smooth out of the carton and has a fresh milk flavor that lingers. Cooked, it’s creamy with a yummy buttery note that would make it perfect for both sweet and savory dishes.