Chop Salad With Dried Cranberries and Ricotta Salata

By: ~Rita~
Jan 3, 2007

The only knife needed here is to prepare this salad. It all chopped small enough so no need to set a knife to use while eating. Ricotta Salata is one of Italy's most unusual and least understood sheep's milk cheeses. This snow-white variation of Ricotta originated in Sicily. Spongy and smooth, Ricotta Salata is a rindless cheese made from lightly salted sheep's milk curd and whey that is pressed and dried even before the cheese is aged for at least three months, giving this pure white cheese a dense but slightly spongy texture and slightly salty, not overly salty or "sheepy." Instead, it boasts a mellow blend of nutty, milky and sweet flavors, with consistency being versatility in cooking. This is not ricotta as Americans have come to know ricotta. In Italian, ricotta simply means ""recooked."" It is a cheese-making process rather than a specific cheese. This ricotta is also a salata, or ""salted,"" cheese. If using feta in place of ricatto salata be sure to soak and rinse in cold water before diced. Try Candied Walnuts & for a dressing Maple Dijon Dressing or fresh lemon juice if keeping the fat out of your food intake.