I may have actually found a decent ricotta. Safeway has a line of products made by its division Lucerne under the "brand" O Organics. Why this would be considered organic is beyond me, but O Organics Organic Ricotta Part Skim Cheese is the closest I think I will come to the NY/NJ brand of ricotta made by Polly-O. Like Polly-O, the O Organics version doesn't have all those thickeners and stabilizers often found in cheap ice cream. All of the ricotta I've had out here, up until "finding" this brand, looked like wax, had no flavor, and behaved like spackle. I'm very surprised that I found this because out here, unfortunately, most folks think Pizza Hut is the final word on Italian food. Why? Because most of them typically go to Peter Piper Pizza or Chuck E. Cheese. Pizza Hut is a fancy night out. Yuck!
[I know a woman who doesn't use pasta sauce or anything resembling it. Instead she concocts her own using ketchup as the main ingredient.]