Can You Freeze Ricotta Cheese?
Yes, you can freeze it.
2 months
Becomes watery and grainy — best for baked dishes like lasagna after thawing.
Ricotta is one of the more forgiving soft cheeses to freeze specifically because it's rarely eaten on its own — most ricotta ends up baked into lasagna, stuffed shells, or a cheesecake, all situations where the watery, slightly grainy texture that develops after thawing gets absorbed into a much larger dish rather than served exposed. Draining a thawed container in a fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth for a few minutes before using it removes some of the extra liquid that separates out, giving a slightly better result than using it straight from the fridge after thawing. It's not a cheese worth freezing if the plan is to eat it plain or use it as a light spread.
Commercial ricotta, sold in tubs with a bit of stabilizer or gum added to keep it smooth, tends to hold together slightly better through a freeze-thaw cycle than fresh, homemade ricotta made simply from curdled milk and an acid — the homemade version has nothing helping it resist separation, so it typically comes out of the freezer noticeably wetter and grainier than a store-bought tub does. Portioning a large tub into recipe-sized amounts, a cup for a lasagna layer or a half-cup for stuffed shells, before freezing means only thawing what a specific dish calls for. A tub that's already been opened and partially used freezes and thaws about the same as an unopened one, so there's no need to reserve freezing only for a still-sealed container.
Storage times and safe temperatures are general guidance from USDA FoodKeeper, USDA FSIS, and FDA sources — they are not a guarantee of safety. When in doubt, throw it out. This is not a substitute for professional food-safety advice.
Source: USDA FoodKeeper data, checked 2026-07-12.