ricotta

Ingredients

• 2 c whole milk ¹
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt

Hardware

• measuring cup
• saucepan
• cheese cloth (light, undyed muslin would probably work better)
• bowl that can hold twice as much fluid as recipe
• chopsticks (or some other means to suspend wrapped ricotta ball above bowl)

Directions

1. Pour milk into a saucepan and then bring up to 200F slowly to avoid scorching milk.
2. Stir in salt.
3. Stir in lemon juice then remove from heat.
4. Let sit for 10 minutes, gently stirring every 3-4 minutes.
5. Line bowl with 2-3 layers of cheese cloth.
6. Carefully pur in mixture so as to keep all whey inside the cloth.
7. Grab corners of cheese cloth and pull together. This will form a rough ball of the curds.
8. Suspend above bowl and let drain for 10 minutes. Chopsticks are perfect for this and used by placing them across the bowl and then setting the ricotta ball on top of them. This allows the whey to drip into the bowl freely.

Footnotes

1. One can mix low-fat or fat-free milk with half-and-half to achieve the same results. To make 1 cup substitute whole milk, mix 3/8 cup half and half with 5/8 cup fat free milk. ↩