It was Saturday. I was hungry. I needed rest from my weekend labors, and I needed a rice ball. I knew Lorimer Street Meat Market at Lorimer St. and Skillman Ave. makes some good rice balls, so I decided to stop in. While a butcher warmed my snack my eyes browsed under the counter, and there I found a truly remarkable ricotta.

It was packed in what looked like a small metal flower pot, with a creamy dome of cheese like an ice cream scoop on top. It came in small (1-1/2 lb) and large (3 lb) sizes.  The dome of cheese was covered with a plastic sheet bearing the stately name of the cheesemaker: Lioni Latticini, Inc., formally of Lioni Italy by way of Brooklyn though now headquartered in Union NJ. Their own website describes best what I’d just found: ricotta made the “’old fashioned’ way… hand dipped and scooped in order to preserve the texture and allow for a truly premium, chunky-style Ricotta.”

Their claims did not exaggerate. The cheese was flavorful and fresh, slightly sweet and moist and creamy while still maintaining the curdy chunkiness the website brags about. It made a delicious version of my standard spinach-ricotta spread (flavored this time with a bit of nutmeg) that I enjoyed all week on slices of Nunzio & Sons’ sourdough bread.

The Lioni Latticini website tells the story of a family company making cheeses according to traditions brought over from Italy. Though they’re operating on a fairly large scale (they’re suppliers to Whole Foods), this was far superior to a Sargento or Polly-O tub o’ ricotta.  Aside from the tin of Ricotta I brought home, they also make mozzarella, and a basket cheese like I’d found on my previous ricotta quest.

Lorimer Street Meat Market has this ricotta delivered twice a week. As close as this is to my apartment, not to mention its proximity to Brooklyn Kitchen, I expect I’ll be stopping off for this ricotta fairly regularly.

No information yet about Pecoraro Dairy, near the corner of Leonard and Metropolitan. I called to find out whether and where their ricotta could be found in the neighborhood, but did not get a call in return. Very mysterious.

Read part 1 of the Ricotta Quest here

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