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I love italian food. Can’t get enough of it. I have already given you a recipe for a great tomato sauce, and now I will show you how to make ricotta cheese. Ricotta is used as a filling for ravioli or other stuffed pasta, it is used in lasagna and is also fantastic for making all kinds of desserts. You can get ricotta in the stores but trust me this is much better. It is so soft, smooth, and creamy. It has a clean rich flavor that can’t be matched by the cheese you get at your local factory food outlet.This recipe uses 2 L of Fox Hill milk and will yield about half a pound of ricotta. It is very simple to do and it will be worth the effort. If you do not use Fox Hill Milk then you will need to as about 3/4 cup of cream into the mixture to get a nice rich ricotta. I have made this a number of times and I can tell you honestly tell you using Fox Hill’s milk results in the best ricotta that I have had. It only makes sense as the more natural the product the better the results will be.
I will be using this cheese in several recipes I will blog later but this will go great in any recipe you have that uses ricotta cheese.
Ingredients
2 L Unhomogenized Milk or 2 L Whole Milk and 3/4 cup cream
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp salt
Cheese Cloth (this will be required to drain the cheese)
Add the milk and salt to a heavy bottom pot or dutch oven and heat the milk to 180 degrees. Be careful to not let the milk boil. Make sure you put the thermometer into the milk deep enough to get an accurate reading. When the milk is to temperature add in the lemon juice and gently stir it in one or two stirs, do not aggressively stir because you do not want the curds to be broken up. Turn the heat to low and allow to cook for 15 minutes longer. Again do not let it come to a boil. After 15 minutes turn off the pot and cover. Allow to sit for about 30 minutes to an hour or until you see the curds formed and the liquid separating. You will see the milk curdle when you add the lemon juice this is not what you are looking for. You want the milk solids to really form up or the liquid will not strain off.
When this is completed line a colander with several layers of cheese cloth. Slowly pour the mixture into the cheese cloth and allow to drain until all of the liquid has passed through. (About 30 min to an hour). You can then take the cheese and put it in a storage container and refrigerate or use it right away. It will stay fresh 2 to 3 days.
Special thanks to Fox Hill Cheese House for making such a wonderful product.
Tim's Kitchen Table 
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