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This blood orange ricotta pie is creamy, citrusy, and perfectly balanced with just the right amount of sweetness. It’s got a buttery, tender crust and a smooth, silky filling that tastes like sunshine in every bite!
For more recipes that use ricotta, make my pistachio ricotta cake next!
This Blood Orange Ricotta Pie is sure to be the star of your table! It’s delicious, bright, summery, and easy to make! The crust is buttery, flaky and sweet! The filling is a creamy custard with chunks of orange in every bite!
This dish was inspired by Sicilian cuisine. Ricotta Pie is a traditional dish in Sicily and although I’ve never been, I researched a lot about the foods in this region! In my research, I found that blood oranges are a popular fruit in Sicily, so I decided to marry the two to make this pie!
Table of Contents
Key Ingredients
- Ricotta gives the pie its signature creamy, slightly fluffy texture and mild, milky flavor. It’s the base of the filling and has almost like a light cheesecake texture, but more delicate and not overly rich.
- Egg and Egg yolks add richness and help create that smooth, custardy texture in ricotta pie. They also act as a binder, giving the filling structure so it sets beautifully while still staying creamy.
- Melted butter adds richness and helps create a silky filling by blending smoothly with the ricotta and eggs. It also enhances the overall flavor, giving the pie a subtle, buttery flavor without weighing it down.
- Blood orange marmalade adds a bright, citrusy punch to the ricotta pie filling, cutting through the richness with a touch of sweetness and citrusy tang. It also brings a little texture with those bits of candied orange peel – SO good.
- For the pie crust, you’ll need the standard flour, sugar, ice cold water, salt, and cold butter. However, in addition, I use baking powder – this creates a nice, flaky crust that hugs the pie filling so beautifully!
How to make Ricotta Pie
This dish is fairly simple to make. For the crust, you simply combine all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until the dough forms a ball.
Then roll the dough into a large circle with a dough pin and then press the dough onto a pie pan.
Pop the dough into the freezer and mix the ingredients for the filling and then pour them into the pie pan. Pop in the oven for an hour and then freeze for 3 hours.
Then BOOM, you’ve got Blood Orange Ricotta Pie!
Expert Baking Tips
- When making the pie crust, ensure that the water you use is ice cold! The colder the better!
- I used Blood Orange Marmalade for this recipe, however, you can use any preserves or jelly you’d like!
- Use melted butter for the filling, room temperature butter will not work as well as melted when it comes to getting the consistency right!
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can make a crustless version by pouring the ricotta filling into a well-greased pie dish lined with parchment paper and baking until it’s set. This method will give you a dish similar to a basque cheesecake.
Ricotta pie typically uses a traditional pie crust, whereas cheesecake often has a crust made from crushed cookies or graham crackers. Additionally, ricotta pie is generally less sweet and has a lighter texture compared to the denser, richer consistency of cheesecake.
Overbaking or baking at an incorrect temperature can cause the pie to dry out, leading to cracks/collapse. Overmixing the filling can also add air bubbles, which may result in the pie falling and cracking as it cools. To prevent this, bake the pie until the edges are set but the center remains slightly jiggly, and avoid overmixing the batter.
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Blood Orange Ricotta Pie
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 2 tbsps Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter
- 6-8 tbsps Ice Cold Water
Orange Ricotta Filling
- 2 cups Ricotta Cheese
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 3 Egg Yolks
- 1 Egg
- 1/2 cup Blood Orange Preserves, (you can also use orange marmalade)
- 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, (melted)
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
Instructions
- Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a food processor. Pulse for 10 seconds. Add vanilla extract and continue to pulse. Begin adding cold butter, 1 tablespoon at time. Once all butter is added, begin adding ice cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Pulse until dough becomes a ball.
- Add flour onto a work surface and roll out dough into a large circle. Add dough to a pie pan and gently press against the pie pan, cutting off any additional scraps that do not fit into the dish. Add to the freezer.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine all of the ingredients for the filling in a mixing bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined.
- Remove pie pan from freezer and pour filling into the dish. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and ten minutes.
- Freeze for 3 hours or chill in the refrigerator overnight.
- If you’d like to make meringue to add to the pie, whip up 4 egg whites and gradually add sugar until stiff peaks form!
- Eat up!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Im trying this recipe out tomorrow and im so excited! Im using peach perserves instead since i could’nt find any blood orange. I’ll come back and let you know how it turned out.
Enjoy!
I’m so happy that I found this recipe! The pie was amazing and had the most creamy and smooth texture!