Chocolate chip ricotta pie

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Chocolate ricotta pie is a delicious Italian baked pie made with ricotta cheese and chocolate chips as fillings, a pie crust base, and some pie crust on top. It is usually made at Easter in Italy, but it has become quite common to prepare it as a normal dessert. In fact, it does not come as a surprise to have it for Sunday lunches when families gather together to enjoy the day.

Ingredients and variations

This chocolate ricotta pie recipe only really contains very simple ingredients and it’s pretty easy to make. Here’s the list with suggestions for addition and replacement:

• all-purpose flour (the classic ’00’ in Italy)
• White sugar for the pie crust, plus some for the filling (you can skip this)
• whole eggs, of medium size
• baking soda
• butter (we replaced sometimes with margarine and it works but we recommend butter for its consistency)
• ricotta cheese, that you can buy already or you can make it yourself (lactose-free recipe)
• lemon (we skipped it here but you can add lemon peel and/or lemon-flavoured aroma – few drops, example here)
• Chocolate chips (we added them but you can skip them if you are not a fan of the chocolaty flavour. Of course, you can regulate the amount as you please)
• Powdered sugar (you can dust powdered sugar using a strainer/sifter)

How to make chocolate chip ricotta pie

This recipe requires three main steps: first of all, we need to make the crust base; the second step will be preparing the filling, and in the end make and place the pie crust stripes (yes, a lot of patience is required and if the dough is not worked properly, they will break. Do not worry though, it’s not that difficult!).

In order to make the crust base for our chocolate ricotta pie, take a bowl and add flour, sugar, eggs, baking soda, and butter. Make sure that the butter has been outside for a while for it to soften. If it is still hard, wait some time so that it will be easier to work. Work the dough for some time until firm and soft. Let it rest for some minutes and cut one third out. You will need it for the stripes on top of the pie.

Once you have prepared the base, take a pie pan and spread the base on it, paying attention to the edges.
To make the filling, take a bowl and add the ricotta, which needs to be quite dry, one egg, chocolate chips, lemon aroma/peel, and liquor if you wish, and mix with one or two teaspoons of sugar. You can avoid the sugar if you prefer it less sweet.

Spread the filling onto the base and level it up as much as possible. Once done, spread the remaining dough using a rolling pin. With a pizza or strip cutter, cut long strips (3-4mm of thickness and 1,5/2cm of width) and start placing them on top of the pie, first horizontally and then vertically.

How to store chocolate ricotta pie

This chocolate ricotta pie should be eaten on the same day and can be kept at room temperature for the day but if you wish to store it and eat it on the following days, feel free to keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days more. Before eating, leave it at room temperature for some time, so it won’t be cold to eat.

More Italian desserts

If you are looking for more Italian desserts to try out, take a look at the most traditional Italian dessert, Tiramisù, or try some variants: Coffee-free Oreo tiramisù and Egg-free pistachio cream tiramisù. All of them are great choices!