Soft cheeses

Try to keep curd/small curd cottage cheese, Quark, Smetana/low-fat sour cream, Ricotta and cottage cheese to hand. They are all low in fat and the first four have useful binding qualities in cooking. As there is no US equivalent to Quark, or low-fat curd cheese, like fromage frais, it is acceptable to substitute puréed cottage cheese wherever these ingredients occur.