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This 100+ year old recipe for Italian Ricotta Pie has been passed down through generations.
We’re sharing this Italian Ricotta Pie as part of an ongoing Ambassadorship with Peapod. All opinions are 100% mine.
Today we’re sharing a treasured family recipe from my husband’s side of the family. This recipe for Italian Ricotta Pie was part of a collection of handwritten (and very weathered) recipes that we were lucky enough to inherit from Jack’s grandmother.
Italian Ricotta Pie is a classic, traditional recipe – often served at Easter. Like so many of the other passed-down recipes that we’ve recreated here on A Family Feast, this 100+ year-old family recipe was vaguely written, and it lacked some exact ingredient measurements. So – it actually took us three attempts to get this Italian Ricotta Pie recipe just right! (You’ll also notice that Jack’s grandmother called it a ‘cake’ but it is baked in a pie plate!)
I think our Italian Ricotta Pie will make any fan of traditional Italian foods very happy! (Especially those of you who love Italian desserts!)
This pie has a lightly sweetened, very moist ricotta cheese filling, and a thick, rustic crust with hints of both vanilla and almond flavors. Interestingly – this recipe does not use butter in the crust. Extra virgin olive oil is used instead – and it totally works – giving the crust a crispy, flaky and almost cookie-like texture on the outer edges, and the bottom crust under the ricotta cheese filling is slightly cake-like in texture.
You can buy all of the ingredients to make this Italian Ricotta Pie – as well as everything else you’ll need to prepare your Easter dinner – from Peapod’s grocery delivery service. Peapod carries thousands of items including Easter candy, holiday hams, and so much more – just like your local supermarket. You can even place your grocery order from the Peapod app! Just decide on the date and time of your grocery delivery – and Peapod will bring your groceries to your home or office.
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Italian Ricotta Pie
Please note: The dough for the crust is very delicate and very soft. This is normal and if it breaks as you put it into the pie plate, it can easily be repaired by pressing the tear together. (So don’t worry at all if it doesn’t roll out and transfer perfectly to the pie plate.)
Ingredients
Crust
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 egg yolks (save egg whites for filling)
1/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup good quality olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
Flour for dusting your counter
Filling
2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 whole eggs, beaten
2 egg whites (saved from making the crust)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bring 2 or more quarts of water to boil on stove. In the bottom rack of the preheated oven, place a baking dish such as a 9×13-inch baking dish and fill with the hot, boiled water. Place another oven rack directly over that to next rack position.
In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and sugar. Stir to combine.
In a smaller bowl combine egg yolks, milk, olive oil, and both extracts.
Make a hole in the center of the flour and pour in liquid. With a wooden spoon, mix to combine. (If the mixture gets too difficult to combine with a wooden spoon, used your hands to finish mixing).
Flour your countertop well and place the dough ball in the center, pressing to form a round disc. Keep flouring, pressing and flipping. Flour a rolling pin and gently roll to a circle an inch or two larger than a deep dish 9-inch pie plate.
Either fold the dough in half and place over half the pie plate, flipping other half over or roll the dough onto your rolling pin than back over the pie plate. Again, the dough is soft and delicate so be gentle.
Use your fingers to form and press the dough into the confines of the pie dish, crimping the top edge all the way around (as you would any other pie) by pinching with thumb and index finger. Set aside, the shell is not pre-baked.
Make the filling by placing the ricotta in a large bowl and mixing in sugar until combined.
Add whole eggs, egg whites and vanilla and stir to combine with a wooden spoon. If lumpy, use a wire whisk to smooth out.
Pour directly into unbaked crust. Cover the crust edge with foil or pie crust shield so the edges don’t get too browned as the pie bakes.
Place pie in the center of oven on the rack over the water bath and bake for one hour and ten minutes. Turn off oven but leave the pie in the oven for ten more minutes. (Don’t open the oven door during any of the time that the pie is in the oven.)
Carefully remove the pie from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely. (Cool completely before refrigerating – if you put the pie in the refrigerator while still warm, it will weep slightly and collect moisture on top.) Chill overnight uncovered.
Once chilled, cut and serve.
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Could you use a reg refrigrated. Pie crust ?
Sure Corinna – the homemade crust is totally different, much thicker and it adds better flavor – but if convenience is better for your needs, you can make this in a store-bought crust.
This sounds so delicious. I have a stupid question, do you put the pie into the water bath or do you put it on a separate rack above the pan of water?
Hi Carrie – No such thing as a stupid question – sometimes with water baths, you do put the pan right in the water dish and sometimes you don’t! In this case, since a pie plate is so shallow, we are having you put the pan of water on the rack underneath the pie plate to avoid getting the water in the pie. (If you were baking a cheesecake, for example, in a springform pan with taller sides, you could put it right in the water.) The moisture from the pan of water should help prevent the pie from cracking as it bakes. Hope that helps!
I make this all the time now. Love it
So glad you are enjoying the recipe Shane!
I followed instructions exactly and so far am THRILLED!! I never got a copy of my Mom’s “pizza dulce” Easter ricotta pie and this recipe brought tears to my eyes. It is now in refrigerator uncovered as instructed and tomorrow morning I plan to indulge with my morning coffee! Thank you thank you. The pie looks just like yours and The house smelled wonderful as it baked!
Thanks Eddie – We hope our version is just as good as your mom’s.
Can I use spring form pan?
Hi Sandra – As you might see in the photos, this is really more of a pie so a pie plate will work best.
Hello,
Let me start with -thank you for sharing-
I was curious about the crust having almond extract added-it did not appear to be on the original photo of the recipe-
Also, the sugar seems to have been adjusted downward and the vanilla increased. You also appear to have left out putting the crust in the refrigerator while preparing the filling – it may not seem like an issue to you but in the world of baking ALL those details make a HUGE difference. Could I ask for a copy of the original – as written- without interpretation? I have been seeking an original recipe for over 20 years and for these reasons am never able to k=get an original. It would mean the world to my family.
Hi James – Thanks for your message – you’ve raised some valid points about baking of which we both agree.
As mentioned in the post, we made three versions of this pie before publishing the recipe in the post – the first being exactly as written in the copy you see. From what we both remember (it’s been a few years since we made the recipe), the first crust tasted like cardboard and the filling was overly wet and very sweet. So we changed the recipe as you noted. While we always love the idea of posting an original, vintage recipe exactly as written – if you are a regular reader of our recipes – then you already know that we’d rather update a vintage recipe so it’s delicious and better suited for today’s ingredients and cooking methods.
We’d be happy to email you a copy of the original recipe – although it might take us a few days to find it. Jack’s files are packed up in boxes at the moment while we paint his home office. As soon as we find the box, we’ll send it to you at the email address here on your comment.
Best,
Martha
I don’t eat refined sugar only honey. And no refined flour. Can this be done with honey and a whole grain white flour?
Hi Diane – We’ve only made the recipe as written. I think the flour swap would be fine, but since the honey is a liquid vs granulated sugar, you may need to make some other adjustments to accommodate the additional liquid in the filling. Let us know how it comes out!
Hi – it’s baking now, aromas great! A question — is that amount of flour correct?? My dough was a batter, not even close to a dough. However, I did have to use about 1/2 cup almond flour as – like the entire world now — ran out of regular flour. Ended up kneading in more kneading in some coconut flour (yes, really scraping the bottom of all the flour bins), so we will see.
Hi Brian – Almond flour has more moisture in it than all-purpose flour so it’s entirely possible that is what changed the consistency of your pie crust….hope it still worked out!
Just made it….It’s cooling. My crust is not very pretty, but neither was late mother’s. This looks and sounds like the pie she made. I am looking forward to serving it tomorrow, for Christmas! Buon Natale!
Aw – we’re honored you chose our recipe Lisa. (I hope our recipe is as delicious as your mother’s.) Merry Christmas to you too!
Have you ever tried to freeze this pie? Wondering if I can make it a couple weeks in advance of serving.
Hi Karen – We haven’t tried freezing it ourselves. In general, cheesecakes freeze well – so I think this would be OK. Please let us know how it works out!