How to: Homemade Ricotta.

Ricotta cheese is one of our favorite treats here at O&F. When considering what our premiere post would be, a simple recipe for homemade ricotta only seemed appropriate. With a dollop you can transform anything – from your tomato sauce to a hunk of grilled bread. (We love to treat ourselves to that!). Very few things in a refrigerator’s repertoire comes close to the versatility of ricotta cheese. Is there anything more lovely than the moment when that smooth velvety tang from a spoonful of it meets your tongue? Maybe the moment when you find it slathered onto a pizza crust, dressed with basil and fresh oregano. Or, the melt into your chair feeling the second your fork delivers a bite of a ricotta cheesecake with fresh fruit to your mouth?

For most cooks, ricotta cheese comes in a plastic tub in the grocery store’s dairy section. That’s okay – for a labor intensive recipe, like a big tray of lasagna for instance, thinking twice about your ricotta cheese just really does not make sense. However, this recipe may just change your mind about that.

Your shopping list will go from one item, to four ingredients.

Whole Milk. Heavy Cream. Sea Salt. Lemon.

And by all means, you could make that shopping list even shorter and replace the heavy cream with an extra cup of milk. Our only note: use the freshest milk you can find, and be sure that it isn’t ultra pasteurized.

You will also need to make sure your kitchen has four tools.

A candy thermometer. Several strips of cheesecloth. A sieve. A nonreactive saucepan.

click to print the recipe.

For the half an hour that it takes to prepare and bring this recipe together, you will have weeks of your friends and family’s oohs and ahhs to cherish.

Before you begin the process of vigilantly stirring the milk mixture, prepare your lemon juice. In any kitchen, proper preparation almost always leaves room for delicious results.

Bringing the mixture to 190 degrees is much more of a process than the original recipe from Tasting Table let on. At least 20 minutes time, and be careful to keep your thermometer from touching the base of the saucepan. However, once you pour your curds and whey into the cheesecloth, your work is done. The straining process can take as little as an hour or as much as an overnight – depending on how much time you have. Unless you wish to just spread it onto bread or a pizza crust, we recommend you let the straining take place for a whole 12 hours. The consistency will become temptingly rich.

The lemon juice, substituted for the usual vinegar, makes this ricotta recipe great for both savory and sweet dishes.

For a simple appetizer, prepare sliced pieces of good crusty italian bread with a brushing of olive oil. Grill them or place them in the oven under the broiler until they become toasted.

We chose to top our crostini with a spread of ricotta and – right from the tree thinly sliced figs, a drizzle of olive oil and rosemary, and homemade roasted peppers.

From Our Kitchen to Yours. Enjoy!