But you can use this fresh Italian cheese:

A dessert of fresh ricotta, honeycomb and crostini. Photo courtesy Davanti Enoteca.

Today’s tip, though, is to serve ricotta for dessert. It was inspired by Davanti Enoteca in Chicago’s Little Italy.

The restaurant offers a dessert of ricotta and a piece honeycomb with toasts. You can drizzle liquid honey over the ricotta instead of serving a piece of honeycomb.

Serving the ricotta in a mini mason jar adds to the charm (see photo above), but consider rocks glasses, goblets and whatever you own. (Here’s another use for those sherbet Champagne glasses, which should never be used for Champagne).

Honeycomb. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE
NIBBLE.

Recipe Variations

 
It’s a simple cheese course that also provides sweetness. We like it for dessert, as well as for breakfast, brunch or snacking.

TIP: Use the best ricotta you can find. While average brands are fine to mix into recipes, here the ricotta is the main event. If you live in the northeast, look for Calabro ricotta: It’s terrific.
 

We love cannoli: the crunch of the fried shell against the rich, sweet ricotta filling.

One of our diet treat recipes is to take lowfat ricotta, sweeten to taste with a noncaloric sweetener, and blend until smooth.

Add a few mini chocolate chips, and you’ve got cannoli without the shell.
 
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RICOTTA CHEESE.