My wife has been making a similar concoction every night for the past week
since we started South Beach.  Good stuff.  We've done vanilla and almond
extracts, cocoa, lemon, and tonight was lime with bits of the zest mixed in.
My birthday was last weekend, but I only got one piece of cake in me before
we started the LC diet.  The kids managed to finish of the rest, but were
complaining that they didn't get any of the ricotta dessert.  I wasn't
willing to trade either.  Giving up cake was the least of my worries.  Top
with some slivered almonds for a bit of texture.

Getting iced in ourselves in Tidewater area of VA

Tom

Lovely! I'm going to try that next time I want a quick treat.  In the
meantime, I made and tried this last week.  Delicious!  I don't usually look
at the Somersize stuff, but got this recipe from cookbook from the library
while perusing the LC cookbooks.

* Exported from MasterCook *

                         Lemon Scented Ricotta

Recipe By     :
Serving Size  : 6     Preparation Time :0:00
Categories    : Desserts

 Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
 1                cup  heavy cream
 2               cups  whole milk ricotta cheese
    1/3           cup  splenda granular
 2        tablespoons  lemon zest -- freshly grated
 1         tablespoon  lemon juice

Place the cream in a mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer or whisk until
soft peaks form.

In another bowl, combine the ricotta, Splenda, zest, and juice and beat
until fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Fold the whipped cream into the ricotta mixture until well incorporated.

Spoon into custard cups and refrigerate overnight.

Garnish with lemon zest before serving.

Source:
 "Somersize Desserts"
Copyright:
 "2001"
                                   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 281 Calories; 25g Fat (78.6% calories
from fat); 10g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 96mg
Cholesterol; 84mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 1 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk;
4 Fat.

Just so you don't have to start from scratch...  (I should mention
that I like dark chocolate, so keep that in mind.  Also, I can
almost imagine the little ricotta curds (?) are tiny bits of
chocolate.)

Chocolate Dessert
Based on a cross between a South Beach Diet recipe and some ideas
I've seen on this newsgroup.

2 heaping tsps (the kind you eat with) good cocoa powder (I used
Valrhona)
2 packets Splenda
ca 1/4-1/2 tsp squished decaf coffee crystals (should be a powder)
a few dashes salt
enough cream (or milk, depending on what diet you are on) to mix
above to a paste
1/2 tsp vanilla (just splash it in, not measured)
1/4 c mascarpone cheese*
1/4 ricotta cheese (I used fat-free, which was even lower in carbs
than the full fat one)*
chopped toasted almonds (opt.)

Mix the cocoa, Splenda, coffee, salt, and cream (or whatever) to a
smooth paste.  Stir in the vanilla.  Mix the cheeses, then mix
them into the cocoa mixture.  Stir in almonds if using.  Eat.
Half of this was quite enough for me, so I'd say it serves two
people.

*This recipe has evolved into the following.  Put almost 1/2 c of
fat-free ricotta cheese in a measuring cup and add mascarpone to
equal 1/2 c.  Dump cocoa, Splenda, coffee, salt, and vanilla on
top and mix well.  The mixture will be rather stiff.  Add a bit of
cream to make a better consistency  and mix well.  Stir in almonds
if using.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), I am allergic to
chocolate and can only eat this occasionally.  Also unfortunately,
I have to eat this pretty early in the day or it keeps me up all
night.

try stirring in some whipped cream....that is pretty much the way to make
dessert canneloni(sp?) filling