Making Ricotta Cheese & Other Adventures in Italian Cooking

So my cooking skills have improved significantly since moving over here. I think I have mentioned that before we came, my friend Ash {the mast chef herself} told me that she didn't know how to cook until she moved over here {8-ish years ago}. 

I really begin to believe it more and more everyday.

 I have gone from hamburger helper and stouffers to cooking from scratch. 

After 4 or 5 tries, I have now mastered the art of making my own ricotta cheese from scratch. 

I took a few recipes that I found online as well as the advice of others, and tried a little something different from each every time and have my own little version now. I would highly recommend making your own the next time you make anything that needs it. Making it has to be a whole lot cheaper than buying it.  You only need milk, white vinegar (lemon juice works too), and something to act as a cheese cloth. 

So here it is: 

I start with about 6-8ish cups of milk {for us over here its about 1ish box of milk}. This makes about 2-ish cups of ricotta. Trust me "ish" works well here. 

First, Scald the milk.... meaning stare at it and just before it starts to boil, when its just beginning to move a little bit, take it off the heat. If it starts to boil, you've gone too far. The curds will be really small, and the amount of ricotta you end up with will be significantly less. 

Right when you take it off the heat, begin stirring in the white vinegar, 1 tablespoon at a time. 

For me, the first tablespoon doesn't do anything... just keep stirring. 

Somewhere between 2 and 3 tablespoons (depending on how much milk you are using), the curds and whey seem to magically separate. 

It is as this point that I always begin to recite little miss muffit.... not kidding. Every time its stuck in my head for the next few hours.... because when else have you ever heard anyone talk about curds and whey? 

Once it starts to separate, you can stop adding the vinegar. Its never taken me more than 3, and the most milk I've started with is 8 cups. Again, the milk is VERY different here so it might be different with non ultra-pastruized milk in the states. 

Then I just let it sit there for a while and cool off completely. Some websites say to let it sit for up to 24 hours... I say that 1.5- 2 hours is plenty. Plus your kitchen is now gonna stink a little... and who wants their kitchen to smell like vinegar and sour milk for 24 hours? 

After it has cooled, you need to separate the curds and whey. First I carefully pour a lot of the excess liquid off in the sink. Then I line a colander that is sitting in a bigger bowl with a cheese cloth. I'm pretty sure you don't have to have cheese cloth- any thin cloth that could strain in this way would work. 

Again, different places online say to let it sit overnight. I say that it isn't going to strain anymore than it does in 2 hours.

Half way-ish through, I kind of CAREFULLY stir it, lifting it up a little to let more liquid through. I also dump out the liquid in the bowl at this point and then set the colander back in. Does that make sense? I hope so. 

Once its strained as strained as its gonna be, you have ricotta! And apparently cottage cheese too. You make it the same way. 

For lasagna, I stir in an egg, as well as a little dried parsley and oregano until it looks a little like this:

It makes this SUPER tasty lasagna. 

Thanks to Jamie bringing me a large box of lasagna noodles when she came to visit in March, I have been able to make several batches. 

Peace out Stouffers. 

There's a new chef in town. Who makes her own ricotta from scratch.

A couple of weeks ago I took it a little further and made beef and cheese manicotti. 

I mixed the ricotta with parm, mozzarella, ground beef (that had been sautéed with onion and a tiny bit of very minced garlic), parsley, and a tiny dash of garlic powder. 

yum.yum.yum. 

Speaking of italian food with mozzarella.....

I bought a big block of mozzarella at the wholesale market here {please don't picture costco or sam's}, that needed to be shredded and frozen. The thought of shredding it by hand with a shredder seems.... horribly daunting and monotonous. 

BUT have no fear, Ash comes through again with her food processor that has a cheese grater attachment. 

Take what took 10 minutes to shred and do it in 10 seconds.... yes PLEASE. 

14 bags of shredded mozzarella in my freezer. i'm one happy girl.  

hooray for cooking from scratch in a foreign country. 

Joyfully Cooking LOTS of Italian,

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