Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Generously butter a 9” springform pan and wrap the bottom well with foil to prevent leaking. Put water on to boil for the water bath.
2. Stir together ricotta cheese, milk, and egg yolks until well blended. Fold in flour until blended. Pour in melted butter, sugar, orange zest and almond (or vanilla) extract and stir until blended. Fold in the chocolate chips.
3. In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff but not dry. This will go quickly. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites into the batter until the mixture is well blended and there are little or no streaks of egg white visible.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place it in a large roasting pan inside the oven. Pour boiling water into the roasting pan to about 2 inches high. Bake for one hour until the top is brown and the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
5. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edge and release the springform. Serve at room temperature with chocolate chips sprinkled over it. (A little whipped cream would be lovely, too.)
6. The cake is best (in my opinion) on the day it is baked. After overnight refrigeration, it is more like a custard (and moist, like the filling of a cannoli). Not that there's anything wrong with that! (Turns out, my husband liked it even more the second day. Go figure!)