Italian pantry recipes: Amalfi lemon cheesecake

4th Sep 2022 Recipes

Chef Theo Randall presents this mouth-watering Amalfi lemon cheesecake recipe, perfect for dessert with your loved ones

This has to be one of the easiest and tastiest cheesecakes around. Ricotta is used in place of cream cheese, making for a much lighter mouthful, however this means that it’s important to allow enough time for the cheesecake to set fully—ideally you’d make it a day in advance. The best ricotta to use for this is sheep’s milk ricotta, but you will only find this in Italian delis or in a farm shop that sells local cheese. Ricotta is in fact the by-product of cheese making—it’s made by reheating the whey that has separated from the curds, then draining the coagulated top into a fine sieve. The solids are sold as ricotta and any remaining liquid is traditionally fed to pigs.

Ingredients

Serves 8

200g (7oz) cantuccini biscuits
75g (2¾oz) unsalted butter
50g (2oz) light brown sugar
500g (1lb 2oz) ricotta, drained
100g (3½oz) mascarpone
zest and juice of 2 Amalfi lemons, plus extra zest to serve
125g (4½oz) icing (confectioner's) sugar, sifted

Method

Tip the cantuccini into a food processor and blitz them to a fine crumb. Alternatively, place them in a Ziplock bag and bash them with a rolling pin or saucepan. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat, then add the blitzed cantuccini biscuits and the sugar. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, then take the pan off the heat.
Tip the mixture into a 22cm (8½in) non-stick springform cake tin, pressing the buttery crumbled biscuits over the base to create a biscuit base. Transfer the tin to the fridge while you make the ricotta filling.
Using a hand-held electric whisk or a wooden spoon, beat together the ricotta, mascarpone, lemon zest and juice and icing (confectioner’s) sugar in a large mixing bowl for 4 minutes, until the mixture is creamy and light.
Spoon the ricotta mixture into the springform tin and spread it out into an even layer over the base.
Refrigerate to set for a minimum of 3 hours, but preferably overnight, before releasing the cheesecake from the tin. Transfer it to a serving plate and top with extra lemon zest before slicing.

The Italian Pantry by Theo Randall (Quadrille, £26) Photography: Lizzie Mayson

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