Ricotta Cheese

Foreword

Making fresh cheeses at home is surprisingly easy, but fresh ricotta is the easiest. It can be made with high temperature pasteurized milk, unlike other cheeses, and is essentially a process of adding acid to curdle the milk and then straining the mixture.

Ingredients

• 1 gallon whole milk
• 1 tsp citric acid, or more for taste

Directions

1. Heat the milk a little above room temperature.
2. Stir in the citric acid.
3. Wait for the milk to curdle.
4. Strain the curds using a cheese cloth.
5. Add salt to taste.

Notes

This recipe leaves you with quite a bit of whey. You can use up the whey in baked goods as a swap for buttermilk, for instance in the “Cornbread”.

If you are in the habit of making other fresh cheeses, ricotta can be made from whey rather than whole milk.

Ricotta is popular in baked dishes such as lasagne, but Ida recommends it as a topping on a spring green salad.