By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook
My wife recently had an itch to make ricotta cheese. She says that cheese making and writing limericks are her new passions. Who knew?
Anyway, her ricotta, made with the grassfed milk we get from our local dairy, was the best I've ever tasted: thick and creamy. I ate it right out of the bowl, although I suppose you could make a smashing cheese cake with it, or lasagna. Sorry, I finished it before we ever got that far.
In Italian, ricotta means "re-cooked," because this really isn't a cheese, but rather a byproduct of the cheese making process. When the milk is heated to make the cheese, the whey separates from the protein. The protein becomes the cheese. Except that there's usually some protein still left in the whey. If you cook that again (ri-cotta), the remaining protein forms ricotta.
So what happens when you cook regular milk--instead of whey--to make ricotta? Well, as I've said, you get an incredible ricotta, although technically speaking it isn't "re-cooked": it's only been cooked once. You also end up with a lot of whey. But we'll get to that.
To make the ricotta, my wife used the method described in the February-March issue of ReadyMade magazine. To make 2 2/3 cups ricotta, pour 1 gallon whole milk and 4 cups buttermilk into a heavy pot over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, line a colander with four layers of cheesecloth and set inside a large bowl.
Stir the milk, scraping the bottom of the pot, until the milk is slightly hot to the touch. White, fluffy curds will begin to separate from the paler whey. About a minute after the first curds begin to form, remove the pot from the heat and use a slotted spoon to scoop the curds into the cloth-lined colander.
Gather the cloth around the curds and let it drain for a minute (more if you want the cheese drier). Salt to taste and it's done!
How simple could that be? You can eat the ricotta spread on bread or crackers with jam (we love our green tomato and apple chutney for this), or use it in baked goods. But now you have a pot full of whey. Do not throw it out! Tomorrow we'll describe how to turn that extremely healthful whey into a terrific cream of broccoli soup. |
