Matty Cremona's ricotta recipes

• By Matty Cremona

Ricotta is generally recognised to have been made first in Sicily. Its name means ‘re-cooked’, because it is made from re-cooked whey. The quality of the ricotta you choose is vital. Hard, dry ricotta will not be transformed into something delicious by being incorporated into meals. The end result will be disappointing. Shop around and make the most of the variety of ricotta available in the shops now. Maltese ricotta has improved and tends to be better in the winter. Imported ricotta might be a little too bland or soft for some people’s tastes, but it is better suited to some recipes. Firm ricotta makes a nutritious addition to salad. Simply crumble some over a bed of mixed salad leaves or shredded spinach leaves, and sprinkle all over with crushed rough salt, freshly ground black pepper and chopped parsley. Pour on some olive oil and serve the meal with fresh crunchy bread.

Ricotta is used in many ways to make all sorts of pasta dishes and pies. Many recipes are simple yet satisfying, like a dish often called, for some reason, njokki in Malta. This consists of large pasta shells - called lumachone in Italian and njokki kbira in Maltese - stuffed with a savoury mix of ricotta, grated Parmesan cheese, eggs and finely chopped parsley or spinach, arranged in a greased oven-proof dish then soaked in blended milk, eggs and tomato sauce for a couple of hours, before being baked in a hot oven. This is in contrast to traditional Italian ricotta gnocchi, which are little dumplings made of ricotta bound with flour and eggs. (See my recipe for nettle and ricotta gnocchi.)

Ricotta is excellent in both sweet and savoury tarts or pies. Just use your favourite pastry recipe, line a pie dish and experiment with ingredients that go together.

Using bread dough left over from bread-making (or just buy some bread dough from a bakery), you can make a pleasant snack. Just roll out the dough and spread it with ricotta that has been mixed with a little grated cheese, eggs and some herbs. Roll it up like a Swiss roll, seal the edges well and bake it in a very hot oven for 30 minutes or until tapping the base results in a hollow sound.