Home-made ricotta, on bread with fig spread
| November 7, 2009 | Posted by ameliaps under cheese, how-to, side dishes |
I love making home-made bread. So I wondered why would I not attempt to make another primordial food, such as cheese, too… So I did some quick research and voila’, ricotta came to me!
It’s really easy to make home-made ricotta. It’s a 3 ingredient ordeal and it can all be done in about an hour.
The taste is velvety, smooth, almost cream-like. And it goes great spread over bread, with a touch of fruit jam, such as fig spread. I will definitively make this again.
Next time, I need to be more patient and let it sit in the fridge a little bit more to gain consistency before I delve into it!
I used a recipe by Richard Ferretti from Gourmet (2006).
Home-made ricotta
Makes about 2 cups
2 qt whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Equipment: cheesecloth
Line a large sieve with a layer of heavy-duty (fine-mesh) cheesecloth and place it over a large bowl.
Slowly bring milk, cream, and 1/2 tsp salt to a rolling boil in a 6-qt heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. Add lemon juice. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring constantly, until mixture curdles, about 2 minutes.
Pour into lined sieve and let drain 1 hour.
After discarding the liquid, chill the ricotta, covered; it will keep in the refrigerator 2 days.
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We failed when we attempted to make homemade ricotta many months ago. Our execution was off. I love seeing the step by step you have here. We're going to have to try again…using this recipe and instruction. It looks perfect.
I think it's a matter of patience…I too had thought I had failed at one point in the process, and then I waited, and waited some more. And probably could have waited even more (especially the refrigeration part). So worth it!
Excellent! This looks very similar to the recipe I used for making paneer. Who knew it was so easy… Did you make the fig spread? It all looks wonderful.
The fig spread was a summer project
Here's Martha Stewart's fig spread recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/fig-spread