Due to the excessive amount of ricotta in my fridge thanks to the lovely people at Perfect Italiano Cheese, I wanted to try a ricotta cheesecake recipe I haven’t tried before.

Nerdy Rob’s mum makes an amazing ricotta cake, but I knew that required cream cheese as well and I didn’t have any in my fridge so I found this recipe which was just pure ricotta. I found it to be quite a nice recipe with the Perfect Italiano Ricotta, but I still prefer Rob’s mum’s cheesecake to this one. The sultanas add a nice touch though, we served it with honey and cinnamon yoghurt, just to spice things up a little.

Italian Ricotta Cheesecake

90g butter, softened
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups (185g) plain flour
1/4 cup (35g) self-raising flour

Ricotta Filling:
1kg ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
1/4 cup (60ml) lemon juice
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
5 eggs
1/4 cup (40g) sultanas
1/4 cup (80g) finely chopped glace fruit salad

1. Beat butter, sugar and egg in a small bowl with electric mixer until combined. Stir in half the sifted flours, then work in remaining flours by hand. Lightly knead pastry on floured surface until smooth, wrap in plastic; refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Grease 28cm springform tin.

3. Press pastry over base of tin; prick with a fork. Place on an oven tray and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 200ºC / 180ºC fan forced.

5. Cover pastry with baking paper, fill with beans or rice; bake for 10 minutes. Remove paper and beans; bake for 15 minutes or until browned lightly. Cool. Reduce oven temperature to 160ºC/140ºC fan-forced.

6. Make ricotta filling: process cheese, rind, juice, sugar and eggs until smooth; stir in fruit.

7. Pour ricotta filling into greased tin, bake for about 50 minutes. Cool cheesecake in oven with door ajar.

8. Refrigerate cheesecake for 3 hours or overnight. Serve cheesecake dusted with sifted icing sugar if desired.

Serves 16.