Photo taken by Todd Gallop
This is the most traditional dessert of Rome and we often prepare it during our cooking classes. Ricotta is mostly whey, which separates from milk during the cheese making process. Being neutral and creamy, it's suitable for both sweet or savoury dishes. In Rome, as we discuss during our cooking classes, ricotta mainly comes from sheep's milk. For this recipe I prefer cow's milk ricotta as it's sweeter. This cake is eaten hot out of the oven, during our Rome cooking classes, however I would try it cold as well. It keeps in the refrigerator for a few days.Torta di Ricotta alla Romana (serves 6 )
For the pastry: 150g of butter, 300g of flour, 150g of sugar, 3 egg yolks, vanilla flavour, 8g of baking powder, salt. For the filling: 400g of ricotta, 2 egg yolks, 100 g of sugar, lemon or orange zest, a drop of single cream or milk, dark chocolate (to your taste).
For the short pastry, mix flour with softened butter, add sugar, citrus zest, 3 egg yolks, vanilla flavour, 8g of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Make the dough in to a ball, wrap it in film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Mix ricotta until smooth, add sugar, flour, two egg yolks, cream and fold in the whipped egg whites. Then add chocolate chips. Roll the pastry and line a cake tin with it. Pour in the ricotta mix and bake at 150C° for 30 minutes, until golden. Sprinkle some icing sugar.
2 comments:
Hello how are you guys doing? We are back in the US and Viviane has requested this dessert for her birthday. Question how much flour do you add to the filling. I see a measurement for the pastry but not for the filling. Does flour go into the filling? We truly treasure our memories with you guys cooking, visiting the villages and going to the markets. Getting olive oil and fresh meats. There are too many to name them all. Please know that we were blessed by your friendship. Love to all, Babs Edwards
Hi Babs, Lovely to hear from you and so pleased you wish to make the Roman ricotta cheese cake, that you learnt with Guido’s cooking class. Happy birthday Viviane! We also treasure the times we spent together and only wish we made contact again before you returned to the US.
To answer your question, there is no flour in the filling, only in the pastry. You know that the cake is ready when the crust browns and the filling will rise a little. This shows it is truly cooked. The cake will flatten again when it cools and you can eat it at room temperature. Have wonderful Festive Season ahead and keep in touch, Sally and Guido.
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