This here is a family recipe, my friends. And it’s really simple, not only to make, but in ingredients. Cheese isn’t always simple to make, yet this ricotta cheese is. You just need some milk, heavy cream, white vinegar, salt, and you’re off.
My mother has made this ricotta for man years now, and it’s always a glorious sight, resting there on her table in a beautiful bowl. You know it’s fresh, you know it’s delicious, and you know it’s made with love. I started making it myself in my 20s when I left home, which, it seems, is when many of us begin to find our sea legs in the kitchen. (Especially if we had pro-level cooks as mothers dominating our childhood kitchens!)
Included here is a little reel I made on how to make ricotta. :=)
You know what goes great with a fresh batch of this ricotta? Slices of my sourdough einkorn baguettes. Even my mother has been commenting as of late that she prefers the bread I bake to any she buys, even from high-quality bread places like Arthur Avenue in The Bronx. Which really makes me feel like I’ve arrived, I must confess. You can find that recipe here, “Slow Down, Bake Bread.”
Give the cheese (and the bread!) a try, and drop me a comment or shoot me a message letting me know how you liked it!
xoxo,
Dolores
What You’ll Need:
1 gallon of milk at room temperature. (You can use any type, but you’ll get a richer flavor and texture with whole milk.)
1 pint heavy cream
7 tablespoons white vinegar
Sea salt to taste
Cheesecloth or similar item to strain the cheese
If you don’t need this much ricotta, you can easily halve this recipe. For 1/2 gallon of milk, use about 3 1/2 tablespoons of white vinegar, and half a pint of heavy cream. The rest of the recipe remains the same!
What to Do:
Place all the ingredients in a pot. Start on low-medium heat, stirring as the mixture warms. When you see bubbling start to form (see video) turn the heat down to low. Don’t let it bubble too long.
Add the salt. Then stir as the mixture slowly simmers. You will need to keep stirring so it doesn’t stick to the pot and stays smooth. After about 20 minutes, little flecks that look granular in shape should start to form. You can run your wooden spoon through the liquid and lift some of it with the spoon to look and see if the flecks are forming.
After another 10 minutes or so, you should see the flecks becoming more like clumps and more numerous. Basically, it will start to resemble ricotta floating inside liquid!
Turn off the heat. Place your cheese cloth inside a colander. Drain the mixture through the cheesecloth. You don’t want to remove every bit of the liquid; just the main bulk of it. Let sit for a couple minutes, and then transfer to a bowl.
You can serve ricotta hot or cold.
That is it!
Buon appetito!
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