Can you freeze ricotta?

[jent]

I was planning on making 2 pans of lasagna but wound up short on some of the ingredients. Can I freeze the other half of the ricotta tub for another day?

[etaylor75]

I think ricotta has too much water to be frozen, but you could always make Ricotta Gnocchi and freeze them.
http://www.mynonnis.com/recipes/ricottagnocchi.asp

Ricotta Donuts are a favorite at our house:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/gale-gands-sugar-dusted-vanilla-ricotta-fritters

We also eat ricotta with fruit/ honey for dessert....so yummy!

Erin

[Melaine]

I would if I were you. I say that because I make lasagna and freeze the lasagna and it thaws and tastes great, so I figure freezing the ricotta first and making it into lasagna later should be fine too...
that's my twisted logic anyway.

[jent]

I think ricotta has too much water to be frozen, but you could always make Ricotta Gnocchi and freeze them.
http://www.mynonnis.com/recipes/ricottagnocchi.asp

Ricotta Donuts are a favorite at our house:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/gale-gands-sugar-dusted-vanilla-ricotta-fritters

We also eat ricotta with fruit/ honey for dessert....so yummy!

Erin

Those both look delicious! I'm not sure I have the time for either this week, although I'd love to try the gnocchi as a project with DD someday.

I always mean to use leftover ricotta as a dessert or spread, but it's not like I'm going to have it on the same night as the lasagna. Then next thing I know, it's got green mold on the top.

I think I'll just try freezing and see what happens. My thinking is like Melaine's-- it freezes so well for lasagna, why not on its own? (Although in lasagna the water is cooked off a little).

[MontrealMum]

You may run into trouble with the consistency after it's defrosted if you freeze it, but if you're going to cook w/it, I don't know that that should be a huge problem. MIL freezes milk all the time and it always has these funny little hard crystals in it when defrosted but you can skim those out. I tried w/cottage cheese once, but the texture was too odd to eat when defrosted. But, like I said, if you're cooking w/it instead of eating it plain it shouldn't matter.