The Key To Making Smooth Whipped Ricotta Is A Food Processor

Whipped ricotta is a delicious delicacy that's perfect as a pasta filling or the base for a dip. It can also be sweetened for desserts or simply enjoyed on its own with some bread or crackers. Anyone who's made it at home, however, may have become frustrated by the somewhat labor-intensive process and the still-lumpy results that can sometimes occur. Fortunately, the trick to perfect whipped ricotta only requires one thing — your trusty food processor.

While old-school chefs may have been stuck with a hand mixer (or, even worse, just a whisk), modern cooks can use technology to their advantage. All you have to do is add your ricotta, plus a dash of salt and pepper, to your food processor's bowl and process until the mixture is very smooth. This usually only takes a minute or two, after which it's ready to be enjoyed immediately. This can be significantly faster than other methods, especially whipping by hand — not to mention it's a lot less tiring.

Why, exactly, does this method work so well? Primarily, food processors offer the benefit of consistency, ensuring a your batch has a homogenous texture. This is an area in which other mixing styles can come up short, sometimes resulting in pockets of too-dense, lumpy ricotta right next to sections that are runny, grainy, or overwhipped. There are no such worries with a food processor.

In addition, these tools require no special knowledge or skills to operate correctly. Even those who know next to nothing about cooking can create consistently airy, ideally whipped ricotta, time after time. Important to remember, however, is that food processors can also be a pain to clean and are frequently expensive.

As for what to do with your new batch of perfectly smooth whipped ricotta, the options are numerous. Try putting some on top of (or even underneath) a bowl of pasta for an easy cheese hack, or sweeten it to make a delightful cannoli filling or to top fresh fruit.