What to do with left over ricotta cheese from my incredibly tasty and healthy lasagna? Dessert! After a few days of ricotta cheese recipe searching, I settled on making a cannoli pie. Incredibly easy to make, the pie was a cross between angel food and cheese cake. Adapted from a recipe found on Food.com.
3/19/2011 UPDATE: I made this recipe again….using the correct measurements this time. The recipe calls for 15 oz of ricotta. Apparently, the first time I made the pie, I only used 8 oz of ricotta. Frankly, I prefer it with just 8 oz…that amount gave the pie angel food/cheese cake texture I spoke of above. When I used 15 oz, the pie was a bit gritty. So, the next time I make this, I will be scaling the ricotta back to 8 oz.
4 egg whites
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
15 oz of ricotta cheese (drained through a cheese cloth for about 15-20 minutes)
1/3-1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 pre-made graham cracker pie crust (I had a Keebler low fat version on hand)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in sugar, drained ricotta and chocolate chips until just combined and then spoon into prepared crust.
Bake 40-45 minutes until slightly browned and filling is set.
Allow the pie to cool completely and then refrigerate until time to serve.