DATE: Wednesday, October 8, 1997            TAG: 9710070051

SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BETTY DOUGLASS, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   60 lines

YOU GOTTA RICOTTA LET CREAMY CHEESE TAKE YOU BEYOND LASAGNA TO PANCAKES, PIES AND MORE

UNLESS YOU are of Italian heritage or a scholar of Italian cooking you immediately team ricotta with lasagna. After all, what is lasagna without ricotta, the creamy cheese used as a filling between layers of pasta and sauce?

But don't stop there with this white cheese. Ricotta, which has much in common with the more popular cottage cheese, has a bland, verging on sweet, flavor that is popular with Italians and other eastern Mediterranean cooks.

One of the reasons ricotta is so well-loved in some areas is because its mild sweetness reduces the impact of highly acid ingredients such as tomatoes. Ricotta's almost bland taste and rich texture can support more flavorful ingredients without stealing the show.

In the Mediterranean region, ricotta is traditionally made from the whey, a liquid drained from coagulated milk curd during the manufacture of other cheeses. The whey used for ricotta is most often the by-product of making provolone and mozzarella cheeses in Italy.

Pure Italian ricotta is not usually available in the United States because it is highly perishable. But we do have domestic ricottas that have the advantage of longer shelf lives.

In the United States, ricotta is made from a combination of whey (usually from Swiss or cheddar cheeses) and whole or part-skim milk. Some manufacturers use fresh sweet whey combined with whey protein concentrates and skim milk powder. Other companies use milk, whey and cream to make ricotta, while others use whole milk, whey, cream and skim milk as ingredients.

Today domestic ricotta can be found in most supermarkets labeled whole milk, part-skim, reduced-fat, and fat-free.

In other words, not all ricottas are created equal.

Ricotta was first made because the whey was considered too nutritious to waste. And nutritious it is, packed with calcium (337 milligrams in a 1/2-cup serving of part-skim ricotta) and Vitamin A.

And now, people are finding that using ricotta in baked goods (see story, on this page) can lower the fat and cholesterol level while preserving the texture of the recipe.

However, ricotta generally contains more calories and fat than an equal portion of cottage cheese. So if you're watching your weight or cholesterol levels, cottage cheese is usually the better buy.

Some Italian speciality stores, such as La Bella Italia on Laskin Road in Virginia Beach, make their own ricotta from whey and milk.

For a quick and easy pudding, add instant coffee and confectioners' sugar to ricotta. MEMO: Betty Douglass is a free-lance food writer and home economist in

Portsmouth. All recipes in this article have been kitchen-tested by the

author. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

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