Ricotta cheese is a key ingredient in many Italian dishes. It gained its popularity due to its low fat content and relatively low cost. Do you know that you can cook it in your own kitchen? Only a few ingredients are needed, and fresh Italian cheese will be on your table! We will present you an easy recipe for ricotta at home, as well as methods for its further use.
Homemade Ricotta Recipe
Milk, lemon juice, salt and half an hour of your time is all that is needed to prepare fresh homemade ricotta. You will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is!
Essential ingredients and cooking utensils
So, for homemade ricotta we need to measure:
- 2.25 liters of whole milk;
- 80 ml of lemon juice (about 2 medium lemons) or 80 ml of wine vinegar or 0.5 teaspoon of citric acid;
- 1 teaspoon of salt (optional).
The following kitchen utensils are also required:
- 4-liter enameled (!) Pan;
- Digital Thermometer;
- Measuring spoons;
- Gauze;
- Bowl for filtering;
- Colander;
- Skimmer.
Upon completion of the cooking process, we will get about 600 ml of cheese.
Cooking stages
First of all, pour the milk into the pan and put on medium heat. We monitor the heating process using an electronic thermometer. When the temperature reaches 93 degrees, milk begins to rise and soar. So, it's time to remove it from the fire in order to avoid the troubles called "milk escaped."
Next, add salt (if you prefer a brackish product) and an acidifying factor. In our case, pour the lemon juice into the milk and mix gently.
We leave the mixture alone for 10 minutes in order to pass the reaction we need, and we get cheese flakes. After time, you will see a clear separation between the white curd mass and straw-yellow whey. For reliability, dip a slotted spoon in our mixture.
If you see that not all milk is curdled (the liquid part is opaque, milky), add one tablespoon of lemon juice and wait a few more minutes.
Then we cover the colander with gauze and remove large curdled clots from the pan with a slotted spoon. This will help to avoid serum spatter. By removing large lumps, we can filter the rest of the mass through a sieve.
Serum run-off time is 10 minutes to an hour. You may ask why such a big difference? ATthis depends on your preference: after 10 minutes, ricotta becomes wetter, after an hour the product will become drier. If after an hour holding it seemed to you that the cheese is too dry, the situation can be corrected by adding a small amount of whey.
You can use fresh ricotta immediately or eat as needed, keeping it in the refrigerator for no more than a week.
Do not rush to pour the resulting serum, as we can get some more ricotta from it.
Second batch of ricotta
- Leave the serum for 12 hours at room temperature in an enamel pan to form the necessary acidity. After time, put the container on the fire, install a thermometer and start heating to 93 degrees, while not forgetting to stir.
- Remove the whey from the heat, cover the pan with a lid and wait for the whey proteins to curl. Curd particles will look like snow-white clouds floating in a completely transparent, yellowish liquid.
- Carefully pour the mass onto a colander covered with several layers of gauze. Ricotta particles this time will be smaller, and therefore draining the liquid will take 2-3 hours. Attention! Do not try to pick up the sediment on the gauze for better runoff. As a result, you break the porosity of the mass, and the process will last much longer.
- Carefully remove the ricotta from the cheesecloth and enjoy the result. In your hands is the real Italian whey cheese.
You can store it with the first batch no longer than a week.
And again, do not pour out the remaining liquid. It is used in the preparation of ciabatta, muffins, pastry for pies. Just replace the water written in the recipe with whey. It will make the taste of baking more tender.
Recommendations for choosing milk
- First, it is preferable to use whole milk. If there is no way to purchase it, then even 2.5% will do, so the ricotta will be less greasy.
- Secondly, in no case does not choose completely skimmed and ultra-pasteurized milk. These species are not curdled.
Calorie cooked ricotta
The nutritional value of the resulting product will entirely depend on the type of milk you choose.
Here are approximate caloric values of ricotta from whole milk per 100 g of product:
- Nutrition value of 174 kcal;
- Proteins 11.4 g;
- Fats 13 g;
- Carbohydrates 2.8 g;
- Cholesterol 50.8 mg.
How to use ricotta
Variations on the use of ricotta are countless. You can spread it on crisp bread, use it in a salad as a dressing, add to pasta, pizza, and eat with vegetables and fruits.
So that you do not get lost in the many ways to use ricotta, we will present you a recipe for a delicious Italian pie.
Italian Ricotta Pie
For the basics you will need:
- 250 ml of general purpose flour;
- 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder;
- 50 g of sugar;
- 35 ml chilled margarine;
- 1 egg
- Vanillin on the tip of a knife.
Stuffing Components:
- 3 eggs;
- 100 g of sugar;
- 750 g of ricotta;
- Chocolate chips and vanilla extract to taste.
For filling: beat eggs, sugar and vanilla extract, mix cheese and chocolate chips and leave for a while.
For the basics: mix flour with baking powder and sugar, add margarine, eggs, vanillin and knead thick dough. Divide it into 2 balls, wrap them in cellophane and put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
During this time, preheat the oven to 165 degrees and grease the mold (preferably round 22 cm in diameter) with butter. Roll one ball of dough to a thickness of 1 mm and put into a mold. Fill the resulting basket with filling. In order to make the lid of the pie, it is necessary to roll out the second ball of dough, cut the layer into strips and beautifully shape our future pie. Cover the mold with foil and set to bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes. The readiness of the cake is determined by a clean dry skewer or a toothpick.
The pie is ready - loved ones are delighted!
Now you know that to feel like an Italian chef for a short while is not a lot of work and costs. Go ahead, cook with pleasure and enthusiasm! And remember: "If you do not go to Italy, then Italy goes to you!"
