There is one dessert that reminds me of yiayia Anneta, whose kitchen I grew up in. While she made multiple types of traditional desserts that I associate with her, this one in particular no one else that I knew made. It is a ricotta based cheescake that is a regional sepcialty to Kefalonia, where we are from. It is one of the desserts that she would traditionally make for Easter.
The recipe calls for a little bit of fresh dill. I remember it being strange to me because it was a dessert. That little bit of dill serves as a lovely aromatic that you don’t really taste. But somehow the flavors all came together so beautifully, in this lightly sweet cheesecake.
The dill adds a pleasant earthy brightness to the mizithropita that is unexpected. And the glaze that you brush on top before baking caramelizes.
She was a magician in the kitchen!
Mizithra is, in most basic terms, the Greek version of ricotta cheese. It is a fresh cheese made with milk and whey from sheep’s milk. In the market you will find it in two forms. It will either be aged and salted, creating a hard cheese that you can grate. Or it will be fresh and creamy much like the Italian ricotta salata. This dessert calls for the creamy fresh version.
And this cheesecake is traditionally made with sheep’s milk. As you can imagine, Greece has an abundance of sheep.
However, you can simply replace that with cows milk if this is what is available to you. I know that yiayia Anneta did just that. Certainly, if we were in our village, we would have gotten our ingredients from local shepherds.
I used an 11 inch round baking dish.
Ingredients:
4 cups of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
6 eggs (3 whole + 3 yolks)
+1 egg for the glaze (+2 tbsp water & 1 tsp sugar)
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of finely chopped dill
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
Olive oil or butter for the pan
Directions:
In one bowl, mix the ricotta and the milk with the baking powder until smooth. It should have a creamy consistency.
Mix in the three whole eggs, +3 egg yolks with the sugar and the honey until well combined.
Add in the cinnamon, vanilla extract and the freshly chopped dill.
Drizzle a little olive oil or spread softened butter in a 9 inch baking pan. Pour in the mixture.
Now to make the glaze. In a small bowl mix one egg with 2 tablespoons of water and a little sugar. Spoon this glaze mixture over the ricotta mixture and spread it out evenly. This will give it some shine.
Bake at 375 F for 55 minutes, or until golden brown and when you can poke it with a toothpick and it comes out clean.
When it has reached room temperature, dust a little cinnamon on top and slice. The traditional shapes are diamonds.
Kali Oreksi!
My great grandmother Andriani,
my grandmother Anneta,
and my nine year old mother Julia.
on xenia street 
my grandmother snipped fennel greens into mizithropita not dill……. i wonder?
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How lovely!!! Fennel may have been a personal preference! Both my yiayia & thia always used dill. And the two recipes I found online also mentioned dill.
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