Trader Joe’s Baked Lemon Ricotta Cheese begs the question... is it cheese, or is it dessert? Of course, cheese can be dessert, but Lemon Ricotta blurs the lines. Made for us in Southern Italy, our Baked Lemon Ricotta Cheese starts with fresh milk, salt, and whey. The resulting curd is blended with a sweet lemon paste — made with the likes of lemon peel, lemon extract, & sugar — then placed into circular molds and baked at low temperatures. When these wheels emerge from the oven and cool, they do in fact look like dessert. And you can serve it for dessert! (If you close your eyes and took a bite, you might think you’re biting into soft, sumptuous slice of lemon cheesecake…) The winning part of this proposition, though, is that you can also serve it on a cheese platter before dinner, and no one will look askance. Or here’s a fresh idea: mix it into a hot bowl of Fusilli (p. 5) for a creamy, lemony “sauce” that will leave your dinner guests pining for seconds. Trader Joe’s Baked Lemon Ricotta Cheese is only around for the holiday season, and only as long as we can keep it in stock.