Italian Easter Cassata

Cassata is an Easter Italian Cheesecake. This is my mom's recipe the late Margaret Ann Fanelli Colenzo. You're in for a real traditional Italian creamy ricotta filled cheesecake that is bursting with cherries and chocolate!

She made several of these every year, and it would go so fast. A classic traditional cheesecake Italians make every year at Easter with ricotta cheese, fruits and chocolate.

I have cut the recipe in half for years, now the family is growing and I make the whole recipe! Mom would be proud. This is a very close duplicate of her eagerly awaited cheesecake from everyone every Easter. It's hard to carry on tradition without her but she is her guiding me through it every year in spirit.

The chocolate and cherries are the perfect combination of flavors in this cassata cheesecake. It's creamy but now overly sweet. The cheesecake is very rich and you only need a little piece. I usually make two good size ones and freeze one for another time. It sure is a treat and well worth the wait to enjoy every Easter. I will always carry on her tradition.

Thanks to mom's teachings, we can all enjoy her delicious Italian cheesecake.
 A moist delicious very different from the cheesecake made with cream cheese.

Author: Claudia Lamascolo               

Italian Easter Cassata

ingredients:

Italian Cassata (cheesecake)Recipe

12 eggs

1 - 1/2 cups sugar

3- lbs of whole milk Ricotta

1- 8oz chocolate bar grated( she always used milk chocolate Hersheys)

8- oz citron (mom always used this it's optional) I prefer this without it

1 small bottle of maraschino cherries chopped in chunky pieces blotted dry

2 tablespoon pure vanilla

Mix eggs for four or five minutes, add sugar and vanilla, mix well until light in color. In a separate bowl beat ricotta for a few minutes, then add chocolate mixing well. Add this mixture to the eggs mixture and fold in chopped cherries and citron. Line a deep dish pan with dough. Pour in ricotta filling.  Bake at 325 for 2 1/2 hours. If tops begin to brown too quickly drop oven temperature to 300 foil wrap around the edges to keep from cooking further.

Crust: double the recipe for a thicker dough

2 - 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup milk

1 stick of butter (1/4 pound)

3/4 cups of sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

Mix everything together, dough will be very soft, you will need to keep adding additional flour so it doesn't stick while rolling. Roll out to fit tins to fit for the bottom. Use remaining dough to make strips like tic tac toe effect on top. Brush with beaten egg wash for shiny top.
Note: I half this recipe for the filling.  I like a thick crust so I double the crust recipe. I use that whole recipe and makes two square around 10 x 10. If you like a thick crust you have to make a double batch of dough for the whole filling recipe.

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