Light ricotta cheesecake

You've probably seen ricotta cheese used in pancakes to give them a light, fluffy texture but did you know it could be used in cheesecakes with similar effect? Cheesecake is normally about as far from light and fluffy as you can get, but trust me this cheese cake is much lighter but every bit as delicious as it's richer denser counterparts.

Unlike most cheesecakes this one has no biscuit or cake base, the cheese mixture is poured straight into the tin to be baked.

The recipe is adapted from one of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's, he used home made goats curd cheese for his version. As I don't have any goats of my own and I couldn't get any goats curd cheese in the shops I used ricotta which made the perfect substitute.

The finished cheesecake was creamy and light with a subtle lemony flavour in the background, a raspberry sauce made the perfect accompaniment.

The original recipe can be found here. The recipe below contains my adaptations.

Ricotta Cheesecake

Ingredients

•750g Ricotta cheese
•45g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
•3 tablespoons medium oatmeal
•a good pinch of salt
•75g caster sugar
•2 eggs, lightly beaten
•Grated zest of 2 small lemons, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice

For the raspberry sauce
•250g raspberries
•75g caster sugar
•A tablespoon of water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 170C/gas 3 and butter a 20-23cm springform cake tin.

Beat the cheese with a wooden spoon until smooth, then add the melted butter, oatmeal, salt, sugar, eggs and lemon zest and juice. Mix well. Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth the top. Bake for about 25 minutes, until just set.

For the sauce put all the raspberries into a saucepan with a tablespoon of water and the sugar, bring to a simmer and cook for a couple of minutes. You can serve it as it is or pass the raspberries through a sieve for a more refined sauce.

Serve the cheesecake hot, warm or at room temperature with the raspberry sauce and cream if you like.