Ricotta Cheese

Today, while I was eating 1/4 cup of part-skim ricotta cheese with a drizzle of honey- one of mine and my daughter's favorite snacks- I read the ingredients on the back of the ricotta cheese container. Vinegar is the third ingredient listed. Since vinegar (think pickles, pickled beets, etc.) should be avoided in a BOP-free diet- Yikes!

Since my mother's side of the family is Italian, ricotta cheese is a BIG deal! So, I wanted to brain storm some alternatives to ricotta cheese. The best I could come up with is cottage cheese. You could use it to layer in lasagnas. You could alternate layers of pasta, thinly sliced zucchini and mozzarella for another variation on lasagna.

Ravioli is basically a stuffed pasta so the possibilities are endless. You could stuff with pumpkin, walnut and butter. or, perhaps you could make a pesto- basil, olive oil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese- ravioli. Or, simply, you could just use cheese. Of course, if you stuff the ravioli with cheese, onion and potato you've got a pirogi and you traveled north a bit in ethnicity :-).