Parliamo dei formaggi sulla pizza di Alessandro

What does “ricotta” mean in Italian?

Ricotta is the soft, mild white cheese you find in lasagne, cannoli, and on pizza. The name hides a small surprise: it means “recooked.” When cheese is made, a watery liquid called whey is left over. Instead of throwing it away, cheesemakers heat it a second time, and the bits that float up become ricotta. So the name is really a recipe: ri- (“again”) plus cotta (“cooked”).

You hear it plainly as the speaker names the cheeses one by one — “Ricotta? Ok” and, at the end, “E ricotta, ok.” The word comes from Latin recocta, the feminine form of recoctus, “cooked again,” from re- (“again”) and coquere (“to cook”). Cotta is also the everyday past form of cuocere, so on a menu pasta al forno or anything ben cotto (“well cooked”) shares the same root. Because ricotta is made from whey, not curd, many people in Italy treat it as a dairy product rather than a true cheese. Common partners on the table here are burrata and mozzarella, both also mentioned alongside it.