Savory zucchini dill cheesecake

May 22, 2011 at 8:01 pm (101 cookbooks, C (2 stars, okay, edible), Necessarily nonvegan, Summer recipes)

I bought a ton of ricotta to make a recipe (I no longer remember which one), then changed my mind and needed to do something with all the ricotta.  I thought about making lasagna but wanted something a little less time-consuming, and Derek found this recipe for a savory zucchini ricotta cheesecake on 101 cookbooks.

I had so much ricotta I decided to double the recipe.  (Plus I don’t have a 7-inch springform pan.  Does anyone?)  But it turned out I was a bit short on ricotta and had to substitute in cottage cheese for 1/5 of the ricotta.  The recipe is called a zucchini cheesecake but it has only 2 cups grated zucchini and 3 1/3 cups of cheese!  And once you salt and squeeze out the zucchini the amount looks truly pitiful.

I ended up making this pretty late at night and not realizing it had to cook for over an hour.  So I went to bed and asked Derek to take it out after and hour, sprinkle the goat cheese on top, and  finish the last part of the baking.  After it was done baking he tried to take it out of the springform pan but it kind of leaked all over and fell apart — made quite a mess I hear.  But it firmed up after spending the night in the fridge.

I wasn’t very fond of the cheesecake.  I found the dish quite bland, and the texture wasn’t appealing to me either.  I could barely taste the dill, and I couldn’t taste the lemon or garlic at all.  I would much rather have eaten a bit bowl of ricotta and sauteed zucchini.  Derek liked it more than me.  He seemed to eat the leftovers enthusiastically, but when asked for a comment he said only “I thought it was okay.”  I won’t make it again.  If I’m going to make something with all that cheese it should be better than okay.