The Downside To Swapping Ricotta With Cottage Cheese For Lasagna

While lasagna can be quite a time-consuming dish to make, it is a comfort food that is hard to pass up. The classic Italian dish typically features layers of pasta, tomato sauce, and a creamy, cheesy filling. One common ingredient in the filling is ricotta cheese, but some people may be tempted to substitute it with cottage cheese. (This is in fact just one of several mistakes you can make with lasagna.) While both are dairy products, they are not exactly interchangeable in lasagna due to their different textures and flavors.

Ricotta cheese has a smooth and creamy texture, making it perfect for use in lasagna filling. It has a mild and slightly sweet flavor, which pairs well with other ingredients like tomato sauce, basil, and pasta. Ricotta cheese is made from the whey of cow's milk, and its curds are small and smooth. Thanks to those small curds, it creates a thick, creamy filling in between the layers of noodles and sauce.

Cottage cheese, on the other hand, has a grainy texture and larger curds than ricotta. It is not as thick and creamy as ricotta, making it less suitable for use in lasagna filling. Cottage cheese is made from curdling milk, and its curds are much larger and more visible than those of ricotta.

When cottage cheese is used in lasagna, it can create a lumpy and grainy texture, which is not ideal for the smooth and creamy filling that most people expect from lasagna. The flavor of cottage cheese is also sharper and more acidic than ricotta, which may not be desirable as a lasagna filling.

So, while cottage cheese and ricotta cheese may seem similar, don't substitute one for the other in lasagna. Instead, the next time you're making lasagna, be sure to use ricotta cheese for the perfect creamy filling that everyone will love.