Homemade Ricotta
In Italy I’ve always got a plastic cup of fresh ricotta from the dairy in the fridge, but in Denmark the fresh cheese is not always available. Instead I make my own homemade ricotta.
Making homemade ricotta is a whole lot easier than you should think. All you need is milk, lemon juice and salt, and time to heat the milk, let it curd and then strain it. The total process takes about an hour, but most of the time the ricotta just sits passively on the table waiting for the magic to happen. Just be aware that 1 ltr. of milk produces only 0,3 ltr. ricotta.
Homemade ricotta can be used in exactly the same way as the store bought version. And a few spoonfuls of the leftover whey is brilliant for bread baking or jump-starting the lacto-fermentation process when making eg. chucrut.
Ingredients
1 ltr. milk (I use semi-skimmed milk with 1,5% fat and like it, but in general whole milk tastes better. UHT pasteurized milk, however, cannot be used.
1 lemon juice (can be substituted with 50 ml vinegar)
1 teaspoon salt
Preparation
Heat the milk to 90 C / 200 F which is just before it starts to boil properly.
Remove the milk from the heat and add lemon juice and salt. Rock the pot gently to combine the ingredients.
Let the milk sit for 15 minutes until it has formed lumps of white curd and watery whey.
Line a strainer with cheese cloth and place it over a bowl. Pour the curds and whey into the cheese cloth and let it drain for about an hour, depending on how firm you prefer your homemade ricotta to be.
Spoon the drained ricotta into an airtight container and keep it in the fridge until it is needed for ravioli, cakes or toppings.
Homemade ricotta less than an hour after heating the milk.
How much lemon juice? The amount isn’t in the ingredient list.
I know it’s imprecise, but I use the juice of 1 fairly juicy lemon. You can see the milk start to coagulate, when you rock the pot to combine the ingredients.