Ricotta salata substitutes

Brined white sheep's or sheep-and-goat's-milk cheese, firm enough to crumble.

Best for

pasta alla Norma, watermelon salad, grain salads, roasted vegetables, grating over pasta

Prep

Rinse the block under cold running water for ten seconds, pat thoroughly dry, chill, then crumble or grate on a box grater.

Texturally almost interchangeable, which is why this is the standard answer. The gap is flavour intensity: feta is brined, so it is markedly saltier and carries a distinct lactic tang that ricotta salata does not have, and used straight from the tub it will dominate a delicate dish like a watermelon salad. Rinsing it briefly under cold water and drying it well removes a surprising amount of that surface salt and sharpness. Choose a firm Greek block feta rather than a soft crumbly French one, and avoid the pre-crumbled tubs, which are dry and chalky.

Aged Mexican cow's-milk cheese, firm, dry, white and heavily salted.

Best for

pasta alla Norma, grating over pasta and vegetables, salads, anywhere you want a salty finishing crumble

Prep

Grate finely or crumble; add at the end and taste before salting the dish.

A genuinely good match and often easier to find. It is drier and more granular than ricotta salata, so it grates into a fine powder rather than soft flakes, and it is considerably saltier, so use a lighter hand and pull back the salt elsewhere in the dish. The flavour is more sharply savoury and slightly barnyard-y compared with ricotta salata's clean milky mildness, which is welcome on grilled vegetables and slightly assertive in a fruit salad.

Fresh, mild, lightly pressed Mexican white cheese that crumbles cleanly.

Best for

watermelon and tomato salads, summer salads, topping pasta, when you want mildness

Prep

Crumble by hand, season lightly with flaky salt, and add at the last moment so it does not weep into the dish.

The best match for ricotta salata's flavour rather than its texture. It has that same soft milky, faintly sweet character with almost no funk, which is exactly right for the delicate uses. What differs is moisture and salt: queso fresco is wetter and much less salty, so it crumbles into damp curds rather than dry flakes, and without a pinch of added salt the dish will taste underseasoned. It also will not grate, so use it only where crumbling is fine.

Hard aged sheep's-milk cheese from Lazio and Sardinia, sharply salty and grainy.

Best for

pasta alla Norma, grating over pasta, cooked dishes

Prep

Grate very finely and use half the amount called for; season the dish before adding it and not after.

The right family, since it is also sheep's milk, but a much louder voice. Pecorino is aged far longer, so it is intensely salty, sharply piquant and slightly peppery, and used one for one it will steamroll the dish and taste nothing like the gentle salted-milk note ricotta salata provides. At half quantity it works well on a plate of pasta alla Norma. Do not use it in a fruit or watermelon salad, where it will taste harsh and out of place, and do not add any further salt to the dish.

Firm Cypriot sheep and goat's-milk cheese, usually sold for frying, used here ungrilled.

Best for

salads, grating over roasted vegetables, when it is the only firm white cheese available

Prep

Chill the block hard, grate on the fine side of a box grater, and scatter over the finished dish off the heat.

An improvisation rather than a first choice, but it works better than people expect. Raw halloumi is salty and mild in roughly the right way and it grates cleanly on a box grater when cold. The problem is the squeak: halloumi has a distinctive springy, almost rubbery bite that ricotta salata does not, so grated shreds stay resilient instead of dissolving into the dish. Grate it as finely as you can to minimise that, and never cook it in the dish or it will turn into chewy strings.

Fresh unaged pressed curd cheese, salted to make up for the missing cure.

Best for

salads, crumbling over vegetables, vegetarian and halal or kosher kitchens

Prep

Crumble, toss with salt and a few drops of lemon juice, rest 15 minutes, then use.

The least-bad option when nothing salty and firm is available, and it needs help. Unsalted pressed curd has the right dry crumbly body but almost no flavour, so the dish loses the entire seasoning contribution that ricotta salata was making. Salt it deliberately, let it sit fifteen minutes so the salt penetrates, and consider a squeeze of lemon to add the faint tang it lacks. Even then it reads as a texture rather than a cheese, so use it where crunch and contrast matter more than flavour.