Local Italian Store? Need Fresh Ricotta
 

I have a dessert I want to make for New Year's Eve which requires fresh ricotta. I have not looked for this yet, but know that good Italian stores in the The Villages may not exist. Any ideas?

You might try Gio’s Deli on 301.

Yes I think Gio's gets it in fresh once a week, pre order.

Little Italy Deli in Inverness has the very best Ricotta. They also have fresh Barrata Mozzarella which is excellent. So creamy and good with heirloom tomatoes and basil with good balsamic.

Right on with both suggestions!

Ricotta
 

Little Italy will hold fresh italian bread if you tell them what day your are stopping by.

I have never tasted Ricotta. We called cottage cheese Schmearcase (sh-meer-cah-sah) when I was a child living in Columbus, Ohio.

I have strong suspicions that if you substituted cottage cheese in your dessert recipe, few would notice.

Ricotta vs Cottage Cheese – Which Should You Choose?

Oh how my momma would roll over in her grave. Nope, nope, nope.....but I still love ya girl!

Yeah there's a HUGE difference between the two. Different consistency, flavor, meltability.

Stayed with a friend in Pikesville MD, who made lasagna with cottage cheese. It teased sour as compared to a lasagna with ricotta. So I’d say they’re not that close or interchangeable.

That's like saying Velveeta is the same as American cheese.. lol

I must say these sound wonderful;


Our Best Ricotta Cheese Recipes | Taste of Home

The difference is we wouldn't suggest you put your fresh fruit on Ricotta!


I do love cottage cheese, but it has its place.

I take that as a shot to Philly Cheese steak :)

These recipes all sound wonderful. I will try a few and then see if cottage cheese stands up to this Italian masterpiece.

ricotta cheese in desserts - Bing

Now,now, now....there are those who say that about other subjects and it is ouchy and touchy and hurts peoples feelers.

I make a great taste tester.:bigbow:

Not hurting anyone, or didn't mean to. I used to make a cassata alla Siciliana every year for my husband's birthday. No way would cottage cheese have worked in the filling between the layers.


This is a simplified version: Italian Ricotta Cassata Cake Recipe



The one I made was sponge cake with raspberry jelly filling, ricotta filling, drizzled in a liqueur. I think it was six layers, several fillings. Had some dried fruit in there somewhere. Anyway, no place for cottage cheese in there, or in a sweet Italian dessert.


My favorite way to eat cottage cheese is with steamed broccoli, cut-up tomatoes, salt & pepper and Catalina dressing. I also like it with fruit.

I couldn't imagine filling a cannoli shell with creamed, sweetened cottage cheese. That'd be pretty disgusting.

Your opinion is noted.

We all have culinary tastes based on the way we were raised. You feel confident and familiar with East Coast Cuisine and I feel confident and familiar with mid-American cuisine. I never, nor did anyone I knew and went to school with taste Ricotta, Bagels, Smoked Salmon, Herring, or homemade Italian "gravy" or sauce until we were in our twenties. We are all different and we are all valuable and if everyone liked the same thing they would only sell vanilla ice cream.

But what I think might have been grating (sorry) on people was someone who in the past has professed not knowing about Italian cuisine stating that someone else probably would not know the difference between cottage cheese and ricotta in an Italian dish. You're coming up against a noted cuisine, from a place of not very much experience, in response to a person who wants to find the real thing. That's all. I wouldn't comment on, say, how to make a curry from scratch if I hadn't done it or researched it.


I know you are an excellent cook. I apologize. I've over-reacted to your comment.

OUCH I come from an Italian neighborhood in the North East people would cry ( I would too ) if you substituted cottage cheese for ricotta.

Plus one!

Holy Cannoli, Batman. My father-in-law could tell from which store his wife bought the fresh ricotta.

Best Cannoli Recipe - How to Make Homemade Cannoli

I see that I have not been sensitive and as understanding as I should have been. This comes from many of us having completely different experiences than others in childhood and so the inclination comes sometimes unbidden to think...well, that's silly. I apologize to those I have been unkind and annoying to.

The very first time I had Italian cooking from an Italian person in their home was here in The Villages a dozen years ago....and that person's name is Diane Tucker, who ALSO recently gifted us with frozen sauce, pronounced soo-ahhs, at Christmas this past year. It is amazingly wonderful and she puts all kinds of meat into it including pork. Diane Tucker is in the top ten people I have loved at first sight in this world. She has many wonderful qualities besides cooking, but she talks a little funny. ;)

No ONE should ever say mean things about how anyone cooks or the ingredients they use. NEVER.

I really believed that cottage cheese and ricotta were similar. I will buy some ricotta today or in the next few days. I am very sorry if I offended y'all nice folks.

I don't think you have been either -- simply an uneducated palate with regard to this particular food product.

My mom's version of Eyetalian food was a "box of number 8's" (boiled to death) with a jar of Ragu. So of course I knew nothing when I married into an authentic Italian family.

I was amazed and astounded that my very Italian Father-in-Law could even tell the brand of pasta simply by taste.

Gratefully I learned a lot about food from my in-laws since it was not part of my family's culture.

This is from last year and shows the latest trends on cheese buying in U.S.
 

The Most Popular Cheeses In The U.S. Are No Longer American | HuffPost Life

I just looked at Publix and we will have a tub of ricotta in the Gantner household by tonight.

Yes, but do keep in mind there is a big difference between the Ricotta in tubs and the freshly made Ricotta that the Italian deli's make.

I love a dollop of ricotta on spaghetti and meatballs.

Next time try the tub:ohdear: and fresh. Better to compare deli and fresh from a recipe passed down generations. We make some of our own cheese. I always get big hugs for taking time to make fresh

During the second world war, I was very small about four or five but remember that cheese and meat and eggs were rationed. We had friends on a farm who would gift us these precious commodities sometimes and I remember seeing grown ups making butter with a churn in our kitchen and they would make cottage cheese. I remember it hanging, dripping, from the clothes line in back.

Growing up we had a tobacco farm, horse farm, and the largest dairy farm in Kentucky. We used to go out and get fresh milk make our own cream, butter, cottage cheese. Yes there was a churn involved. We made cows milk, goat, and sheep cheese before it became a hot commodity as it is now.
Sur La Table has great cheese making classes, done pretty much the same as we did in the 60s.

We had all that in Connecticut (the East coast). In fact at one point in American history, our state was famous for its tobacco; the finest cigars in the world were rolled in those leaves. There are horse farms, dairy farms galore, and we got fresh hen and duck eggs from a small family farm 10 minutes from us. No refrigeration needed because we picked them up unwashed, and washed right before using. We also got fresh-picked produce from one of several organic farms in the area. I worked for one of the dairy manufacturers as a marketing secretary, our milk came from local dairies throughout the state. And Liuzzi cheese and Elm City cheese have been around forever (Elm City since 1896).

When someone from somewhere other than the east coast claims that "East coast people" are somehow lacking because we don't have the benefit of fresh milk and eggs, I don't know whether to roll my eyes or go all Jersey Girl on them.

Maybe they meant just Manhattan life long residents.

I do know this;.....I have heard with my own ears, from my very own friends that some people from New Jersey claim to have eaten New Jersey corn and tomatoes that were superior to Ohio corn and tomatoes. Any living breathing American, knows that isn't possible!!!

reynoldsburg, ohio tomato festival - Bing images

Ohio sweet corn - Bing images

We’ve been curious about the Little Italy Deli in Inverness, particularly their 5 course dinners on the weekend. Well today we decided to check out the deli. It’s closed till January. The deli is a literal hole-in-the-wall. We assume the restaurant is located behind the deli. Don’t want to prejudge this place based on appearances but having seen it, we’d be hard pressed to return. BTW, we met a local from Inverness earlier this month in TV. He described the Little Italy Deli in Inverness as “OK, but not worth the drive from TV.” We should have listened to him.

Italian Deli
 

Mazzaros in St. Pete is outstanding. I drive there every few months.

I really wish Sclafani or Cento would market their products down here in Florida. I haven't seen a single jar of marinated eggplant on a shelf in any supermarket or Target/Walmart I've been to. Not even Fresh Market.

Oh no GG, Ricotta pie or a cannoli even a lasagna must have ricotta cheese. Both my parents would roll over in their graves and reach out and slap me with the proverbial wooden spoon.