OK, no satisfactory recipe, but I settled on one to try. Second, I had just bought ricotta. Here in Arizona, I have only seen 2 brands, and this was the second brand. I can now say that they both are simulacra ricotta. Based on the ingredients and how they behave as ricotta, these are not real ricotta. Back in New York, I could go to any regular, run-of-the-mill supermarket and could find pretty good cheese, like mozzarella and ricotta. There really should be no more than 4 ingredients (this is also true of cottage cheese). Milk, salt, vinegar and maybe rennet. Once you get into locust bean gum, guar gum, xanthan gum, and other fillers and thickeners, you have stepped away from cheese making and into chemistry lab creations. The proof is in the tasting.
As an example, Daisy brand cottage cheese is much better than most other brands, at least in a regular average Joe supermarket. You will notice a handful of ingredients. That's how it should be. Actually, that's how ice cream should be too. I can no longer eat Breyer's. Once a brand proud of its "all natural" ingredients, they've since cheaped out, and one of the cheapeners makes me physically ill.
