Any way to treat regular ricotta to make cannoli?

Hi everyone,

I have made cannoli quite a few times, but I've always used regular whole milk ricotta. Sometimes I've strained it, but recently we've found a very thick and smooth whole milk ricotta (the kind in the regular plastic containers); still, though, it is never as smooth and I can never manage to replicate the taste as those found in bakeries here in NY.

It's not that mine don't taste good, but it has that distinct taste of ricotta, which you don't get with the ones at a bakery. Some might say that the pure ricotta tastes better---les dense or artifical tasting. And to some extent they are maybe right, but I've always wanted to hit it on the head.

Now, I understand that the bakery shops buy the impastata ricotta, which is processed differently. I've read that it is smoother and also has a different pHl, which probably accounts for not having that ricotta taste that I have.

Anyway, my question is, have any of you found a way to treat the regular grocery store-bought ricotta (which, as I said, is not bad at all, actually very good quality) to achieve that bakery taste? For my cannoli cream, I usually add powdered sugar to flavor, vanilla extract, some lemon zest or sometimes candied fruit, sometimes a pinch of cinamon, then the chocolate chips, and that's pretty much it. I've read some pretty exotic recipes calling for various oils (orange, lemon, anise, etc.) and various liquors, but I'm not sure if anything will ever get me past that regular ricotta flavor.

So if anyone knows any tricks, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Joe

Thanks everyone for the responses.

I think I am going to try to drain it, even though it's very smooth and thick already (it's not watery really at all to begin with).

But, another thing I want to try to do is to run it through a strainer in order to try to get rid of the grittiness; that is to actually push it through a sifter or strainer. Then afterwards whip it a little.

As far as the taste, I think there has to be some sort of liquor or something being added to it. I know one video on youtube, which I believe was in Italian and looked pretty authentic called for maraschino liquor and some other strange liquor that's not that popular due to how it's made (and what it comes from), though I can't remember what it is.

Also, here, it's common to have little green bits in the cream. I don't think it's citron or candied frutta; perhaps its pistachio bits candied or treated somehow. But anyways, the cannoli cream has a pretty uniform taste to these little green bits (excuse the lack of techinal terminology:o).

You see, the cannoli here in NY, not sure about throughout the rest of the country, are really smooth, and have a somewhat heavy texture. It's pretty sweet too, like a lot of Sicilian pastries.

So, you professionals still don't use impastata, just regular ricotta? I thought most bakeries use impastata, because bakeries buy in large quantities and that's the usual if not only way, as far as I know, to buy impastata cream.

Another thing I see in certain recipes is orange-blossom water. I'm not too familiar with this, but I imagine it can't produce a much different effect than orange zest or orange oil, right?

Well I will definitely try the cinnamon oil, since I've never tried it. Thanks.

Thanks for the different opinions, everyone; I appreciate it.

The cannoli that they make in the NY bakeries are pretty heavy. So I would say that I am more looking for smoothness, rather than fluffiness. But then again, I don't want it to be like cement either,:crazy:.

As far as cheesecake, I think sieving the ricotta would make it nicer, even though it may not be essential.

By the way Siduri, I was in Rome last summer, and had a nice time. We ate in a little trattoria that had pretty good carbonara, and decent prices. Ciao!
-Joe