Ricotta cheese recipe

I have been really busy this week and got my days mixed up. I try and post to my blog on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, with short posts to the Facebook page every day. This week I posted to the blog on Wednesday!

As part of the post for ‘going meatless’ I gave you Chef Alan Bender’s recipe for Ricotta Fritters on the recipe page of the blog.

So I thought Thursday’s post can be his homemade Ricotta cheese recipe. I will also add it to the recipe page.

Home Made Ricotta Cheese

Ingredients

2 L full cream whole milk

2 cups cream

4 teaspoons kosher salt

½ cup good 5% white vinegar

Directions

Set a large sieve over a deep bowl. Dampen clean dish cloth with water and line the sieve with the cloth.

Pour the milk and cream into a stainless steel pot – aluminium is not great with milk. Stir in the salt & bring to a full boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and stir in the vinegar. Allow the mixture to stand for 1 minute until it curdles. It will separate into thick parts and milky parts.

Pour the mixture into the cloth-lined sieve and allow it to drain into the bowl at room temperature for 20 to 25 minutes, occasionally discarding the liquid that collects in the bowl. The longer you let the mixture drain, the thicker the ricotta. Transfer the ricotta to a bowl, discarding the cloth and any remaining whey. Use immediately or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The ricotta will keep refrigerated for 4 to 5 days.