Homemade Ricotta Cheese — Surprisingly Easy

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Ricotta cheese is enjoyed in everything from cheesecakes and cannoli, to sandwiches, salads, calzoni, manicotti, lasagne, and ravioli. Ricotta literally means “recooked” and is produced from whey — the watery part of milk that is separated from the curd in making cheese.

In his book, Cheese Primer, Steven Jenkins discusses every kind of cheese made in the U.S. and Europe, and notes that Italian ricotta is typically made from the whey of sheep, cow, goat, or water buffalo milk, while American ricotta is made of cow’s milk whey. As a result, Italian ricotta is nutty, slightly sweet and dry, while the American version is vapid, sweeter, and more moist.

We here at FriendsEat believe many more people are cooking at home these days, not only because of a renewed interest in wholesome home cooked food, but also to stretch hard earned food dollars as far as possible during these lean economic times. Making homemade ricotta cheese is a astonishingly easy, so we’ve gathered two fun and interesting methods for you to try at home.

Happy Stove Ricotta Cheese

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Milk, whole, 1/2 gallon

Vinegar, 3 tbsps

Salt, 1 tsp

Cooking Instructions

* In a large stockpot mix the whole milk with the salt and warm it at very low heat.

* When the milk is almost boiling, add the vinegar and quickly stir with a wooden spoon. Turn off the heat.

* Let rest the milk for about 15 minutes while the ricotta cheese is forming.

* With the help of a strainer, drain the whole milk and collect the ricotta cheese flakes. Transfer in a bowl.

Tips:

Half a gallon of whole milk makes about half a pound of ricotta cheese. If not served immediately, refrigerate. However, consume it within a day. Milk should never boil during the making of the ricotta cheese. Lemon juice can substitute the vinegar with similar results. You can make flavored ricotta cheese mixing, to the homemade flakes, your favorite herbs such as sage, oregano, thyme, peppercorn, rosemary, nutmegs or juniper berries.

Russ Parsons’ Ricotta Cheese

Russ Parsons, food editor and columnist at the Los Angeles Times, has authored two cookbooks and has been writing about food for 25 years. Parsons has experimented with making his own ricotta, and says you’ve got to give this a try.

“There are those who will tell you that this cheese isn’t truly ricotta,” says Parsons, “and pedantic though they may be, I’m afraid they’re right…And if you have a lot of whey laying around, you certainly should try it that way. Otherwise, you’re better off with this shortcut method, which may be less than totally authentic but is certainly totally delicious.”

Russ Parsons Ricotta Cheese

Here’s all you have to do to make it: Warm a mixture of whole milk and buttermilk over medium heat until it reaches about 185 degrees (you’ll see a ring of bubbles appear around the inside of the pan). Remove the pan from the heat and stir in vinegar (regular old distilled white … the stuff you probably now use for washing windows). Let it stand about 5 minutes until curds form, then gently lift them off with a slotted spoon and drain in a strainer. You gently spoon this moist mass of curds out of the pot (I use a Chinese “spider” skimmer) and set them in a cheesecloth-lined strainer to drain for five minutes, and you’ve got ricotta. What’s left behind in the pot is the greenish-gray whey, which, if you’re in a particularly traditional frame of mind, you can feed to your prosciutto pigs.

That’s it, fresh cheese that takes less than 45 minutes to make. What could be more simple? And it’s kind of wonderful the way it comes together, that everyday sort of kitchen magic that makes cooking something new so much fun.

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