Ricotta cheesecake is perfectly rich, silky, and delicious! This ricotta cheesecake is lighter than it's American sister, with no crust, and a fluffier texture.
This is going to get me started; and my friends know (you're my friend, too!) that once you get me started its hard to stop!
But darn it ricotta cheesecake is so amazeballs.
Does anyone even say amazeballs anymore? I don't know, don't care. This really is amazeballs!
First off, I've never really liked New York style cheesecake. Sacrilege, I know. But it's just thick and dense and heavy and I can't deal with it. Mouth-feel and texture-wise, I just can't.
Anyway, this recipe was inspired by the cheesecake at the Capital Grille, where I first had a cheesecake like this. And I looked far and wide on the internet to figure out just why was that cheesecake was so different.
Literally died when I found the secret ingredient: Ricotta. Never liked it on it's own, but I love it in this cheesecake. It's light, fluffy, silky, and rich all at the same time!
Cheesecake craving has been sated without having to deal with a brick of cream cheese for a cake. Did I mention this is a crustless cake?
Aw, yeah.
Looking for more dessert recipes? Say no more:
Ultimate Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake
Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookie Copycat
Best Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Tres Leches Cake
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📖 Recipe

Perfect Ricotta Cheesecake
Ricotta cheesecake is perfectly rich, silky, and delicious! This ricotta cheesecake is lighter than it's American sister, with no crust, and a fluffier texture.
Ingredients
- 16 oz (480 g) whole milk ricotta cheese
- 16 oz (480 g) full-fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 ½ cup (300 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (114 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoon (10 mL) vanilla extract
- ½ lemon zest
- 2 ½ tablespoon (37 mL) lemon juice
- 3 tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 tablespoon all purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C), moving a rack to the middle of the oven. Mix ricotta and cream cheese with an electric mixer in a large bowl on medium speed until very smooth and uniform, for about one or two minutes. Make sure there are little to no lumps before adding the remaining ingredients.
- Add sugar, eggs, vanilla, butter, lemon zest and juice and beat until just fully incorporated. Add the cornstarch and flour afterward until just mixed in; you don’t want to beat the mixture too much.
- Grease a 9 inch spring-form pan with shortening or baking spray and triple wrap the outside and bottom with foil. Pour cheesecake batter into the spring-form pan and tap it multiple times onto the counter top from a low height, at least 10 times to remove any bubbles in the cheesecake.
- Use a 9×13 Pyrex dish or large roasting pan and fill it with 1 inch of water to create a water bath for your cheesecake to sit in. Place the spring-form pan into the water bath dish and carefully put into your preheated oven on the middle rack.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes; afterwards, turn the heat off and crack open the oven door for about another hour. The ricotta cheesecake needs this time to cool slowly, removing it from the oven quickly will deflate it and cause it to crack. Remember: "you want a jiggle, but just a little, in the middle," when it's done.
- Refrigerate for at least four hours, preferably overnight, before removing from spring-form pan and serving chilled.
- Keep in fridge in airtight container or wrapped with plastic wrap for up to 1 week.
Notes
NOTE: You can add the water to the water bath once you have both pans in the oven, you can put the Pyrex with water into the oven first and place the cake into it, you can do it all on the counter. It’s up to you.
NOTE 2: If she cracks, it's okay; it doesn’t affect the taste. Go get some strawberries, slice up some bananas, frozen strawberries and make a strawberry banana topping with strawberry syrup made from the frozen strawberries. Or use cherry filling, apple filling, or fresh berries as a topping. As long as you cover up whatever you want to cover.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 465Total Fat: 27gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 158mgSodium: 548mgCarbohydrates: 35gFiber: 0gSugar: 10gProtein: 21g

Eden Westbrook is the recipe developer, writer, and photographer behind Sweet Tea and Thyme. A classically trained chef, Eden has inspired home cooks into the kitchen with cultural comfort foods, easy family-friendly eats and sweets, and glorious spreads for date night and entertaining since 2015.
Shelley Cohen Miller says
I’m obsessed with this cheesecake. I have made 3 of them. Each one has been amazing. I’m just experimenting with trying to use less sugar. So far. They all are perfect. The lemon zest is definitely the kick in it. Thank you
Hi Shelley!
I'm so happy to hear that you love this cheesecake as much as I do! Happy baking! xo, Eden
Shay McGee says
Absolutely outstanding!! Added a bit more lemon juice and zest to my liking, but hands down this was a crowd favorite! I paired it with a cherry orange blossom compote for Christmas Eve! 5 stars!!
Karen says
This was the best recipe ever ! My cheese cake was so light fluffy delicious.
Farida says
Thank you looks wonderful
sandra says
It looks delicious! I need to try it!;)
Eden Westbrook says
Please do! It's an amazing recipe! Thanks for reading ☺️
sandra says
It looks delicious! I need to try it!;)
britt Anne says
Please do! It's an amazing recipe! Thanks for reading ☺️