Ricotta is so versatile and so good. A simple dash of lemon juice and a spoonful of sugar, and we have a light, refreshing dessert. Some honey and cinnamon and we already feel closer to the Middle East, while chocolate chips and chopped pistachios lead us straight to Sicily. Fancy something savory? Try it with pasta, for a creamy and simple dinner, or use it to enrich cannelloni and ravioli. Forget about cooking robots: ricotta is the real culinary multitasker. 

At the same time, I think most of us know very little about this delightful cheese: for instance, it’s not a type of cheese at all, because it doesn’t come from whole milk, but from milk whey which is what’s left after we make cheese. Whey is heated up (ri-cotta, or “cooked twice”) so it turns into soft milky flakes that are then gathered into fuscelle, traditional ricotta molds.