Monday, July 21, 2008

What do I do with all this ricotta?


I hate to waste food and when I had an enormous tub of ricotta left over after I used 3/4 cup in blueberry muffins, I knew I had to find a use for at least some of it, and fast!

Luckily, Cooking Light came to the rescue with Honey-Lavender Ricotta Ice Cream.

This is not your run of the mill ice cream. It's soft-cheese creamy with hints of floral -more along the lines of a fancy restaurant ice cream. It's light (no heavy cream) and a perfect frozen snack for the fifth day of New York City's heat wave. I used reduced-fat ricotta and orange blossom honey, which worked beautifully.

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon dried lavender blossoms
3 cups fresh ricotta cheese (about 2 pounds)
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Combine sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook 45 seconds or until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat; stir in lavender. Let stand 30 minutes. Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a small bowl; discard solids. Cover and chill 1 hour.

2. Combine fresh ricotta cheese, honey, and salt in a food processor; process until smooth. With processor on, slowly add lavender syrup through the food chute. Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Spoon ice cream into a freezer-safe container; cover and freeze 4 hours or until firm


Yield: 1 1/2 quarts (serving size: about 1/2 cup ice cream)

CALORIES 190 (29% from fat); FAT 6.2g (sat 3.8g,mono 1.8g,poly 0.2g); IRON 0.0mg; CHOLESTEROL 23mg; CALCIUM 250mg; CARBOHYDRATE 23g; SODIUM 240mg; PROTEIN 11.5g; FIBER 0.0g

Cooking Light, MAY 2008



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