This recipe comes from Italy’s great Salvatore de Riso pastry chef from the Amalfi Coast. While I have to find myself a recipe for Italy’s pear and chocolate cake, which is just to die for, in the meantime here is de Riso’s pear and ricotta cake recipe. This is a more involved recipe than what we generally present, but if you want to play chef for a day and turn out something truly remarkable, here is where it’s at.

Ingredients for the hazelnut sponge: 350g eggs (weight with shell), 200g caster sugar, 275g ground hazelnuts, 100g sifted plain flour, finely grated zest of 1 lemon, 75g melted butter.

Ingredients for the syrup: 300ml water, 200g caster sugar, 3 tbsp rum, 3 tbsp pear brandy (eau de vie de poire).

Ingredients for the ricotta cream: 500g ricotta, 125 ml cream, lightly whipped, 225g caster sugar. And for the pear filling: 350g ripe Williams pears, 100g caster sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp pear brandy (eau de vie de poire), 10g sheet gelatine.

Continue reading: Italian recipes: ricotta and pear cake from Salvatore De Riso

If you are in a hurry but want to cook a lovely meal for your family (or friends), this quick and easy Italian recipe is what you need. Ingredients: 200 g pennette pasta; 100 g ricotta cheese; 300 g mushrooms (chopped and cooked in oil with parsley and garlic); Parmesan cheese.

Method: 1. cook the pasta in slightly salted water. 2. In a bowl mix the ricotta and two or three tablespoons of pasta water. 3. Thrown in the mushrooms, add a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and stir. 4. Drain the pasta and stir in the ricotta sauce.

Bon appetit!

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Italian recipes: pasta with ricotta and mushrooms

This Italian recipe for rigatoni pasta with sausage and artichokes is delicious and easy to prepare. Here’s what you need:

350 g rigatoni; 120 g ricotta; ½ cup milk; 200 g artichokes; 2 sausages; 1 glass of white wine; 1 garlic clove; extra virgin oil; salt.

In a bowl mix milk and ricotta and beat them until soft and creamy. In the meanwhile place the chopped the sausage in a little oil, add the white wine and cook for a few minutes. Next put the chopped artichokes in a pan, add the garlic and a glass of water and cook until it has evaporated. Pour the milk and ricotta in another pan, throw in the chopped artichokes and sausage and then stir in the cooked rigatoni. Stir for a few minutes and serve.

Photo | E. Michael Smith Chiefio

Continue reading: Italian recipes: rigatoni pasta with artichoke and sausage

This is one Italian dessert recipe which, when made at home, will certainly impress your guests, and can be considered the icing on the cake of your Italian Christmas dinner. Like any pastry, getting this part right is the trick, after which you if get over that hurdle, you can fill it with what you damn well like…! Well, not exactly. Cannoli are a traditional Sicilian pastry filled with ricotta, which is also the base of Sicily’s famous cassata dessert.

Ingredients for the shell: 300 grams of sieved flour, 10 grams of caster sugar, half a glass of Marsala fortified wine, a pinch of salt, icing sugar and olive oil. Ingredients for the filling: 500 grams of fresh ricotta, 200 grams of icing sugar, 100 grams of cubed candied fruit, 100 grams of dark chocolate flakes, one tiny packet of vanilla powder (less than a teaspoon), a pinch of powdered cinnamon, milk as needed.

To prepare the shells, you need to place the sifted flour in a little mountain, make a crater and pour in the Marsala. Add the sugar and a pinch of salt, and knead until you get a consistent, almost solid mixture. Form a large ball, wrap in a cloth and leave to rest for two hours. After resting, roll out the pastry to a maximum of four millimetres thick and cut into rectangles of 10 cm down one side. Using a metal cylinder to form the shape, roll each rectangle from one opposite corner to the other to create a hollow shell. Heat the oil in a pan and place each shell in the pan, tossing them until well cooked, and allowing the oil to drain off a little at the end of the cooking.

You’re now ready to fill the cannoli. Create the filling by mixing the ricotta, icing sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, candied fruit, chocolate and a couple of drops of milk together. Fill the canoli and dust with a little icing sugar as a finishing touch. A sweet Marsala is probably the best food-wine match with your canoli.

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Continue reading: Dessert from Sicily: homemade cannoli

This is a great Italian recipe for snack food at your next party that will definitely keep the punters happy. Obviously, we have to look to Southern Italy for the biggest dishes in Italian cooking, and this is one from Naples, prepared when there’s a celebration in the air. Devouring one of these at a party means you’re unlikely to be hungry until some time the day after.

The base of this Italian snack is shortcrust pastry, and the point of this is to have contrast between sweet and savoury. In addition to the ingredients for your pastry, you will need: ricotta, salami (both sweet and spicy) and some butter.

Preparation: make your shortcrust pastry and then cut it into circles using a pastry cutter. Pinch the sides up to create a border. Mix the ricotta with the chopped salami to get a creamy texture, then fill the pastry with this mixture. Cover each snack with another slice of pastry, close the fillings properly, and brush with a little melted butter. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for about half an hour. They can be served hot or cold, like quiche.

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Continue reading: Italian snacks: party food from Naples

If you’re looking for an easy and quick recipe, you have come to the right place! You can prepare this pasta dish in no time! Here are the ingredients: 200 g pasta; 100 g sausage; 1 garlic clove; 1 aubergine; 1 cup of tomato sauce; salt and pepper.

Chop the sausage and the aubergine and keep aside. In the meanwhile in a little oil fry the garlic, add the chopped aubergine and cook for a while; when the aubergine looks golden, throw in the chopped sausage, add a pinch of salt and the tomato sauce and cook for half an hour. Next pour the sauce over the past and sprinkle with ricotta slivers.

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Continue reading: Italian recipes: pasta with aubergine and sausage

This ricotta cake recipe comes from Sardinia and is a simple Italian dessert recipe made with limited ingredients.

Take 600 grams of ricotta, 150 grams of sugar, three eggs and one sachet of saffron. For a stronger and more decisive taste, use just sheep’s ricotta, otherwise use a blend or the standard goat’s ricotta.

Mix the ricotta, 75 grams of sugar and the saffron together until you get a nice creamy texture. Add the remaining 75 grams of sugar to the egg yolks and beat. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt and leave aside.

Take the ricotta and the egg yolks and mix together, and then add the egg whites, mixing the whole from the base of the mixture towards the top. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes or until the cake becomes golden.

Continue reading: Italian dessert recipe from Sardinia: ricotta cheesecake