On Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:04:28 GMT, "ViLco" > wrote:

wrote:
>
>> Every Easter I make an Italian meat pie, which has basket cheese as
>> a main ingredient. I only seem to see this cheese around during the
>> Easter season. Is there some other cheese that would be a suitable
>> replacement for it if I wanted to make the meat pie other times
>> during the year? Thanks.
>
>
>If this "basket cheese" is white and has few fats, it probably is something
>close to "ricotta". Do you usually find ricotta where you shop?
>Ricotta is widely used in italian kitchen, it's in the filling many kinds of
>filled pasta ("tortelli", "cannelloni"...), it can end up in the mix for
>dumplings ("gnocchi"), is used in pies, both savoury and sweet, it is part
>of the filling of many cakes, and so on.

Thanks. Ricotta is another ingredient in this recipe. The basket cheese is a
very firm cheese, and as the name implies, comes in a little plastic basket.
It's not as soft or creamy as ricotta.