Instructions: Part of being raised an Italian Catholic was our annual observance of 40 days of abstinence for Lent. Throughout these 40 days we looked forward to their conclusion in an elaborate, celebratory Easter meal, which my grandmother and her daughters prepared over several days.

Like most everyone, my siblings and I always gave up desserts for Lent. We always believed that it would be an easy sacrifice. It never was. We drove our mother nuts during the Lenten weeks, asking again and again, Is Easter this Sunday? By the fourth or fifth week of denial, we all longed for Easter to arrive, and not only because it was the day we stopped our long abstinence with an all-day eating marathon. It also signaled the end of a long, cold winter in our central New York home.

Borrowing from my grandmothers Calabrian cooking experiences, she and my aunts made an Easter meal that heralded spring: lamb roasted with young shoots of garlic, aromatic rosemary and lemon; lasagna layered with ricotta, asparagus and bite-size veal meatballs; and roasted new potatoes with tender peas and pancetta.

But it was their desserts that we all anticipated and salivated for. Each one was prepared with fresh sheeps milk ricotta cheese.

When my grandmother lived in Italy, she was able to make ricotta by bartering for or buying whey from a neighboring farmer who made his own supply of sheeps milk cheese. She preferred sheeps to cows milk ricotta, saying it added a creamy, nutty taste to her recipes like no other milk could.

Like baby lambs, the ricotta was a sign of spring and renewal, and was used

In all of her Easter desserts. It was a tradition that she and her daughters continued once she immigrated to the United States, and is one that I continue each Easter.

In Italian, ricotta means cooked again. Its name originated from the warm whey left after heating milk to make cheese. The whey is heated again and mixed with thick, fresh cream, a squirt of lemon juice and a touch of salt, resulting

In a silky, custardy fresh cheese, tasting nothing like the packaged kind found in supermarkets. It keeps for three or four days in your refrigerator, but in my grandmothers house, where we gobbled it up by the spoonful until it was all gone within hours of being made.

My grandmother had at least a dozen sweet recipes using the cheese. In many of them, the cheese was mixed with candied fruits, chocolate or pine nuts, or a combination of these. Some recipes were regulars at our Easter table and some were an occasional treat. Sfogliatelle were less frequently served for dessert, probably because they are so labor-intensive. Crispy, shell-shaped, palm-sized pastries are formed from transparent layers of dough wrapped around a filling of ricotta and candied fruits. This was her version; the typical recipe uses custard filling, but I always thought hers was much lighter and more delicate.

We also had sfinge di San Giuseppe, fried pastry puffs filled with sweetened ricotta, pine nuts and candied fruit. These are often served on March 19, the Feast Day of Saint Joseph, but in our house were frequently eaten on Easter.

Torta Crema Chjina was a lemon-flavored, layered sponge cake filled with ricotta cheese and grated bittersweet chocolate, covered with an almond glaze.

My grandmothers favorites and a regular part of our Easter meal were her torta ubriaca con ricotta and pastiera di Pasqua. The torta is a single-layer hazelnut cake doused with hazelnut liqueur and served with whipped, sweetened ricotta and fresh fruit - usually tiny, wild strawberries from the woods near her backyard. Pastiera di Pasqua is an Italian version of cheesecake and is considered by most southern Italians the queen of all Easter desserts.

Grandmother baked ricotta, milk chocolate and orange rind in a toasted-almond crust to make a dense pie that held for days, on the rare occasion we didnt finish it on Easter. It never failed to bring a hush to the table, followed by oohs and aahs and finally, applause that my grandmother bashfully accepted.

I recommend using fresh sheeps milk ricotta in every recipe to duplicate the authentic taste of these desserts. You can find fresh ricotta at most specialty and Italian food shops in the Bay Area. If you find a fresh ricotta that is a combination of sheep and cows milk, that would also work fine. Refrain from reaching for the supermarket ricotta. Its grainy, has a coarser texture on the tongue and gives drier results when used in baking.

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