Decadent Ricotta

When I have the time, I prefer to make food myself rather than buying store bought products. This ensures that my food isn't laden with preservatives and that I have control over the amount of sodium and sugar I am consuming.

Although I can't tolerate much dairy I am a sucker for ricotta. It's subtle flavour and creamy texture keeps me going back for more spoonfuls (usually too many!). Moving to the US, I have found that store bought ricotta lacks a pleasant mouth feel. I have been making my own and to my surprise, it's easier than you think.

The added advantage is that there are no added nasties, you can make it with skim or whole milk and the results - well they are leagues ahead of the store bought stuff!

Here's what I used:

(makes just over two cups of ricotta)

two litres of organic milk (I used 2%)
a cup of organic heavy cream
a pinch of salt
juice of one lemon (slowly getting through the left over lemons from my limoncello)

Note:

If you can, source organic milk and cream. In the US artificial growth hormones are used in cows to promote the production of more milk. This is banned in Australia (go us!), New Zealand, Israel, European Union and Canada. If you are from the US please read labels! I will elaborate on this further in another post.

Another side note; I used a cheese cloth and a sieve to drain my ricotta. If you don't have a cheese cloth don't stress, a very clean tea towel or a clean thin pillowcase can be used. On my first attempt at this I used paper towels and I will tell you right now, do not use paper towels (no matter how strong you think they are) - you will have paper fibres in your ricotta...not the fibre you want.

Step one:

Pour the milk and cream into a pot. Add salt and bring to a slow boil (medium heat). Occasionally stir the mixture so it doesn't burn.

Step Two:

Once the milk and cream are boiling add lemon juice and stir constantly until mixture curdles. This takes only a few minutes.

Step Three:

Place a cheese cloth over a sieve. Drain the mixture into the the cleese cloth and let it rest for roughly one hour. This will ensure that most of the whey is removed and you are just left with small curds of ricotta cheese.