Hope you all had a
fabulous weekend! I had such a wonderful weekend, and I am sad it is now at an end. Zach was visiting DC for work, and our weekend was filled with chocolate chip cookies, long walks, and a beer tasting with friends.
When Zach is in town, I use him as a guinea pig on new recipes, and homemade ricotta was calling my name. Homemade ricotta is deceptively quite simple to make! From start to finish, the recipe only took 10 minutes of active cooking time.
This ricotta would make a great food gift (in a beautiful container and a hand-written note) or would be perfect for entertaining. Even if you serve it with store-bought bread or pasta, everyone will be impressed that you made the ricotta!
I made both sweet and savory ricotta snacks. One is simply bread, ricotta, roasted tomatoes, olive oil, and fresh black pepper. The sweet ricotta dish is bread, ricotta, raspberries, and honey. Try them out next time you have friends over!
Ricotta Cheese
from Bon Appétit Magazine
about 1 cup of ricotta
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or distilled white vinegar
Combine milk, cream, and salt in a pot, and cook over medium heat until it just begins to boil. Remove from heat.
Add lemon juice (or vinegar), and stir gently until mixture starts to curdle. Let stand for 5 minutes.
Pour mixture into a fine-mesh sieve lined with two layers of cheesecloth, set over a medium bowl. Chill until the cheese is spreadable, at least 20 minutes and up until 12 hours. The cheese should last for about three days covered in the fridge.
