It's true I made cheese! Something I thought I would never ever do until I realized how freaking easy it was to make ricotta. I used Barbara Lynch's recipe from her FABULOUS FABULOUS cookbook Stir. There are so many recipes I am dying to try from her book. Now that winter seems to be finally over hopefully family will be willing to visit us so I can stuff them full with delicious Italian food.
The only two non-everyday things you will need are cheesecloth and a cooking thermometer. So, go forth! And make cheese.
Taken from Stir
1 gallon whole milk
3/4 cup white distilled vinegar
1 tbsp kosher salt
Fit a large footed colander with a double layer of cheesecloth and place in a clean sink.
Pour all ingredients into a large stock pot fitted with a cooking thermometer and turn on low heat. Stir the mixture constantly with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until it reaches 140 degrees. Barb claims this will take 10 minutes but for me it took much longer--probably 20 minutes. Once the mixture reaches 140 stop stirring and let the liquid come to 175 degrees. As soon as it hits 180 remove the pot from the heat. Don't let the mixture get past 180 otherwise it will turn grainy.
Ladle out the curds into the colander with cheesecloth and let drain 1 hour. If not using right away chill in a container in the fridge, up to one week. And that's it! Easy as cheese. Use it on anything.
Note: the other option for draining your cheese is to tie up the cheesecloth with string and secure the bundle on a cabinet nob with a bowl underneath. As much as I wanted to do this I figured my cats would be far too excited by easily accessible cheese-water.
Look for this cheese appearing in a pizza in the very near future!
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