Homemade Ricotta
I've been wanting to make this ever since I read about it on 101 Cookbooks. After I read another article on homemade ricotta in a spring issue of Cooking Light, I decided to finally make a batch. I followed the directions in Casual Cooking rather than Cooking Light. The main deviation in Cooking Light is the ingredients: the addition of salt, the use of 2% milk, and a higher ratio of milk to buttermilk. Casual Cooking uses whole milk, but I decided to use 2%.
This couldn't be easier. I had some question about whether or not I stopped stirring soon enough. I'm pretty sure I didn't, because I ended up with some curds that didn't float to the top. I drained the ricotta minimally, and ended up with a soft, creamy texture. And really, really yummy. I could have sat there and eaten the whole thing with a spoon.
The only downside to making this is that there's a lot of wasted product - a gallon of milk and a quart of buttermilk ends up making 3-4 cups of ricotta.
- Homemade Ricotta (Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking, p. 39)
looks interesting:)
It's really quite tasty. I'm thinking it will make a very nice substitute for heavy cream in a pasta sauce.
I love to eat ricotta with a spoon. It would be dangerous for me to make a batch of this.
Other than just eating it, do you have any plans for it? how long does it keep?
It only keeps for about a week. I'm hoping to do something with pasta this week - either a creamy pasta sauce, or maybe use gyoza to make some ravioli.
Or I will just eat it all with a spoon!