This delicious Ricotta Pistachio Cake combines ricotta cheese, brown butter, pistachios, vanilla and almond extract, and lemon zest. It’s moist, flavorful and perfect for any occasion!
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Ricotta cheese and brown butter makes this pistachio ricotta cake rich, moist, and fluffy. It’s packed with nutty pistachios. The pistachio flavor is enhanced with almond and vanilla extract and lemon zest!
This pistachio and ricotta cake is similar to my raspberry and ricotta cake and lemon blueberry ricotta pound cake.
This pistachio ricotta cake recipe is made with pistachios! If you love pistachios, you’ll love these chocolate chip pistachio cookies!
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ricotta cheese makes this ricotta and pistachio cake extra moist for days. For more yummy desserts with ricotta cheese, try these ricotta donuts and cranberry cake!
- The flavors sound elevated and fancy, but this pistachio and ricotta cake is made with simple ingredients. It’s easy to make just like my olive oil pumpkin cake.
- You can enjoy this cake for dessert or breakfast with a cup of coffee!
Ingredients
Below are useful notes on some of the ingredients for this ricotta pistachio cake recipe.
- Lemon zest: You’ll need the zest of 1/2 a medium lemon for the batter. Zest the other half over the finished cake. Lemon adds a tart, fresh flavor.
- Butter: I prefer unsalted butter because it allows us to control the amount of salt. Use melted butter or brown butter. Browning butter only takes a few extra minutes. Brown butter is butter that is melted and cooked gently. It adds a toasty, nutty flavor to the cake like my browned butter cupcakes and recipe for brown butter cake.
- Pistachios: Pistachios add pops of green color and nutty flavor and crunch. I recommend raw, pre-shelled pistachios. Roasted salted or unsalted pistachios can also be used.
- Sugar: Use a combination of light brown sugar and granulated sugar.
- All purpose flour: Measure your flour accurately. Avoid using too much flour.
- Ricotta Cheese: Whole milk ricotta works best for this. Make sure the ricotta is at room temperature. Ricotta makes this cake rich and moist just like my blueberry lemon ricotta pound cake, Lemon Ricotta Muffins and raspberry peach cake.
- Almond extract: Almond extract helps the pistachio flavor shine through!
- Powdered Sugar: Dust the cooled cake with powdered sugar.
Please see recipe card for full list of ingredients and their measurements.
Substitutions & Variations
- Use orange zest instead of lemon zest.
- Instead of light brown sugar, use more granulated sugar in its place.
- The cake is moist and perfect as is. It’s also delicious with cream cheese frosting like my pumpkin snacking cake.
How to Make Pistachio and Ricotta Cake
Quick Video Recap
Instructions
Step 1 (Picture 1 above)– Melt or brown the butter. To brown the butter, melt the butter in a large nonstick pan over medium heat. Stir occasionally until it begins to bubble then stir it constantly. It will foam then turn an amber color in about five minutes. Pour the brown butter into a heat safe bowl. Set aside to cool slightly.
Step 2 (Picture 2 above)– Grind or finely chop the pistachios.
Step 3 (Picture 3 above)– In a medium bowl, whisk to combine the flour, pistachios, baking powder, sugar and salt.
Step 4 (Picture 4 above)– In a large bowl, whisk to combine the ricotta cheese, eggs, lemon zest, almond extract and vanilla.
Step 5 (Picture 5 above)– Fold the dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Stir in the brown butter. Pour batter into a 9 inch springform pan.
Step 6 (Picture 6 above)– Bake at 350 F for 38-45 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Dust cake with powdered sugar.
Expert Tips
- Buy pre-shelled pistachios to save time.
- Use a light colored nonstick pan to brown the butter. A light colored pan helps you best see the color changes of the butter.
- This is a moist cake, so it needs time to bake through. If your cake starts to brown a lot towards the end of baking, loosely place a piece of aluminum foil on top.
Recipe FAQs
Use roasted and salted pistachios or raw pistachios. I recommend buying pre-shelled pistachios to save time. A food processor works best for chopping them, but you can also use a knife. Chop or pulse them til very finely chopped, almost ground.
Use whole milk ricotta. The extra fat found in whole milk ricotta makes this cake extra moist. Make sure the ricotta cheese is room temperature. You don’t need to strain it before using.
Keep the cake in an air tight container or wrap it well. It can be stored up to two days at room temperature. After two days, it’s a good idea to refrigerate it.
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Ricotta Pistachio Cake
Ingredients
Ricotta Pistachio Cake
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted or browned, cooled slightly
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest from about 1/2 a lemon
- 1½ cups whole milk ricotta cheese room temperature
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup pistachios measure whole, then chop or place in food processor til very finely chopped, almost ground, plus more for decorating (optional)
Decoration
- powdered sugar for dusting
- pistachios ground or chopped, for decorating
- lemon zest optional
Instructions
- Melt or brown the butter. To brown the butter, start by melting the butter in a large light colored nonstick pan over medium heat. Stir occasionally at first. Once it begins to bubble, stir it constantly. It will start to foam. Continue stirring as you watch for it to turn a light, amber color and develop a nutty smell which should happen in about five minutes. Pour the brown butter into a heat safe bowl, making sure the scrape the bottom of the pan for all the bits. Allow to cool slightly.
- Lightly spray the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan with baking non stick spray. Place a round of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan. Lightly spray the parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
- Grind or finely chop the pistachios in a food processor.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk to combine the all-purpose flour, ground pistachios, baking powder, sugar and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk to combine the ricotta cheese, eggs, lemon zest, almond extract and vanilla extract til well combined.
- Use a spatula to fold the whisked dry ingredients into the wet ingredients til just blended. Stir in the melted butter. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure it's well combined, but avoid overmixing.
- Spoon batter into the prepared springform pan .Bake for 38-45 minutes until an inserted toothpick into the center of the cake comes out clean. If you find the edges or top of the cake is browning too quickly, loosely top it with aluminum foil.
- Allow cake cool for at least 20 minutes before releasing it from the springform pan. Allow to cool completely. Dust cooled cake with powdered sugar and top with chopped pistachios. Zest some lemon zest over the powdered sugar.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that nutritional values are created by an online calculator and should only be used as an estimate.
Annie Sriramachandran
Hi Natalie,
I baked this cake for a gathering and it was a hit yet again as the previous recipe I tried from your webpage. Thanks a million for sharing this recipe. Even more motivated to try more of your recipes. Cheers
Natalie Ward
Ohh that makes me so happy, Annie! Thanks for making this cake and for coming back to write a comment. I love it those flavors for this time of the year and I’m glad it was a hit! I also love that it motivated you to try more of my recipes! Can’t wait to see what you make next! XO, Natalie
George Matthews
I made this for the first time today and my wife and I love it. This recipe goes our “save” list;-)
Natalie
Aww thank you so much for making this cake, George and for adding it to your save list! So happy you and your wife enjoyed it! 🙂 Thanks for your comment!