Homemade ricotta

I've been a little silent here over the weekend as we were moving into our new house! So very exciting, but I'll share those details with you another time. It's just too exhausting thinking about what still needs to be unpacked and put away that I've decided that this week I am not going to think about it at all!

Last night in our new kitschy 50's kitchen I decded it was time to get back into experimenting with making things myself (and ignore the boxes and mess around me. I am VERY good at procrastinating).

I read on a few blogs that making ricotta was quite simple, it has been on my to-do/learn/master list of simple living skills for a while.

So here is the process I used (I found it online, sorry I don't have the link, I'm really bad for writing down a recipe and forgetting where I saw it to link to and reference)

Pour 1L full cream (preferably organic) milk into a pot. I used Barambah Organics milk, which is pretty local to me.  Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of white vinegar.

The milk will start to curdle straight away after putting in the vinegar

Bring up to a slight boil and boil for about 30 seconds.

Curds and whey seperating even more after boiling

Take off the heat and let sit on the bench for approximately 15 minutes. This will result in the curds and whey seperating even more and allow the mix to cool down so you can squeeze it later.

While the pot is sitting, set up a bowl with muslin cloth over it (I also used a strainer between the two to catch any bits that escaped the cloth, but later realised this wasn't necessary)

After the 15 minutes is up pour the mixture through the muslin cloth, being careful to not allow any of the curds to fall into the bowl. If they do just scoop them out and put them back in the muslin cloth.

Ricotta mix in muslin cloth

Then gather and lift the muslin cloth, and squeeze out any excess moisture.

What's left in the muslin cloth is your yummy fresh ricotta!

1L of milk made this much ricotta

We mixed it all through a fresh basil and tomato pasta that we'd cooked for dinner. YUMMO!


And what's left in your bowl is whey.

VERY nutritious and useful, especially in bread making. We used it in little scones. But you can use it anywhere that asks for buttermilk or replace any liquid in baking (pancakes would be yummy!). Some people swear by drinking it straight!

Nothing like playing around in the kitchen to take your mind of the household duties!

:)
Kim