Sara’s Kitchen: Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Ricotta cheese is an extremely versatile cheese whose manufacture dates back thousands of years. It can be beaten smooth and mixed with sweet and savory ingredients to create a variety of desserts and snacks. It is also commonly used in Italian main dishes such as lasagna, manicotti and ravioli.

But there’s nothing quite like home made…

A while back, I decided to make quail-egg ravioli, and to give these precious little gems the treatment they deserved, I decided to make my own herbed ricotta cheese as part of the filling. So, I set out to make my own ricotta, which was easy! It had a lovely and light citrus flavor from the lemon juice and the texture was super silky. Waaay better than anything you could buy at the store.

By the way, you’ll need some cheesecloth for this…luckily it’s inexpensive. Tip: You can find cheesecloth at higher end grocery stores, kitchen stores or online. 

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Makes about 1 cup – recipe easily doubles.

Ingredients:

•  3 cups Hiland Dairy Whole Milk
• 1 cup Hiland Dairy Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 2-3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

Bring whole milk, heavy cream and salt to 190ºF, remove from heat, add lemon juice.

Place mixture in cheesecloth in a strainer set over a bowl. Let sit for up to 2 hours.

And…voilà! Ricotta!

Add whatever herbs you have on hand. I added thyme, dill, tarragon, parsley and cilantro.

Print this recipe.

~Sara, Sara’s Kitchen