Cottage cheese is a versatile and nutritious ingredient that can be used in a variety of dishes, from sweet to savory. Choosing the right type of cottage cheese for a recipe is important, and it can be substituted for other high-fat ingredients in many dishes. Cottage cheese can be used in casseroles, stuffed peppers, and even cheesecake to create lighter and healthier versions of classic dishes.
For some, cottage cheese is the ultimate comfort food. It’s smooth and creamy, it’s wonderful with berries or fresh peaches, it offers kick and has relatively little fat and can even take the heat. Sweet and savory breads baked with ricotta don’t last long on the cutting board due to their rich taste and moist texture. Baking with cottage cheese instead of sour cream, cottage cheese or heavy cream in appetizers like lasagna, quiches, and quiches and vegetable pies also adds taste and nutrients. Choosing the right type of ricotta for a particular recipe is important, and when using substitutions, it’s important to write down the quantities.
The smart cook must determine whether cooking with dry or creamy ricotta is the best choice for a particular recipe or cooking method. Creamy ricotta moistens bread and other baked goodies, while dry ricotta doesn’t have additional milk and is less likely to separate or curl up over high heat, making it a better choice for foods that will be cooked at higher temperatures. Dry cottage cheese might be a little less available, but many health food stores carry it or rinsing the creamy cottage cheese in a colander will leave the curds dry.
Almost any casserole recipe with sour cream, mayonnaise, heavy cream, or condensed soup will benefit from cooking with cottage cheese. A simple chicken, black bean, and brown rice casserole pairs perfectly with cottage cheese, an egg, and just a little shredded cheese. Stuffed peppers can be created in no time using creamy ricotta, sauteed onion, some rice, and whatever veggies the cook has on hand.
Most everyone loves cheesecake, but few people love the heart-breaking fat packed into a single slice. Thanks to cottage cheese, this sinfully delicious dessert becomes downright angelic. Unlike dense cheesecakes made with cream cheese and sour cream, a baked cheesecake with cottage cheese and low-fat yogurt, a little sugar, eggs, and just a dash of flour is a light-as-air confection. Adding raspberries, strawberries or other fruit to the batter makes it sing.
Cooks looking to trim the fat from rich cream sauces or creamy desserts find that equivalent amounts of low-fat yogurt and creamy cottage cheese do the trick. Recipes calling for cream cheese generally accept the same amount of dry ricotta plus a little margarine and perhaps a splash of low-fat milk if the results seem too dry. Recipes for cooking with cottage cheese are easy to find on the Internet, but creative cooks will soon find themselves creating their own signature dishes using this versatile food.
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