Obsessed. That’s probably the only appropriate adjective to describe my feelings towards ricotta. Sometimes I get an unhealthy attachment to an ingredient and that said ingredient will make an appearance in most of my meals that week. I have plenty of ways of justifying this; for ex:we save money buying larger portions and then, of course, we wouldn’t want to waste any of it so I have to use it up. It’s all very reasonable I assure you. Last week I made a special relationship with Ricotta.
I’ve been scouring my favorite blogs lately as part of our new efforts to go vegetarian 2 days/week and came across several recipes using ricotta. The use of the ingredient made me look like a master chef when put in Plump Pea Dumplings from 101 cookbooks.
Ricotta also showed up in our Lemon Ricotta Kale Gnocchi from Eating with S.O.L.E.
I even made the gnocchi myself with a bit of whole-wheat flour and spelt flour based on recent inspiration from Shanna’s — from food loves writing — post about homemade spelt ravioli. (By the way, I did make the spelt ravioli a few weeks earlier with a homemade bell pepper sun-dried tomato sauce that was to-die-for. The leftover spelt flour was used in the gnocchi.)
Finally ricotta featured in brekkie in our lemon ricotta pancakes or pikelets, as they were called in my cookbook. I topped the pikelets with slow-cooked cinnamon apples from my husband’s suggestion. The pikelets themselves had no sugar so the cinnamon apples added the perfect touch of sweetness and were a healthier substitute for butter and syrup.
All of these meals had two things in common. Ricotta, of course. And deliciousness.
Have you ever tried making your own ricotta? It’s really easy!
@Naz, no, we haven’t. Do Tell!
Hi Laura sorry for the late reply, I was away for a few days but I have a recipe for you.
Makes about 10-12 ounces of ricotta
8 cups whole milk.
1/2 – 1 tsp cheese salt or very fine sea salt.
2 cups buttermilk (whole milk).
Place the 8 cups of milk in a large heavy saucepan and set on medium-high heat. Cook stirring constantly until the milk comes to a frothing boil. Turn off heat and as the bubbling subsides stir in salt and buttermilk. Continue to stir in one direction only until the curds and whey separate (at this point the mix will look like thickened buttermilk). The whey will look milky and the curds will be very small. Remove from stove and let sit untouched for 5 minutes.
Carefully pour the mix through a cheesecloth (the whey will drain into the bowl), you can save the whey for another use. Leave the curds in the strainer to drain for 15-30mins depending on consistency you want. Use immediately or store in fridge in air tight container for up to 5 days.
Let me know if you make it