We make a lot of lasagna or lasagna related dishes here at our house. It’s one of our favorite meals of course so we’re almost always looking for some variation of it. With pasta, without pasta, it doesn’t really matter much to us. As a result, we use ricotta cheese almost every week. So much so that when we started making things ourselves and stopped buying them, ricotta was almost first on the list. Homemade Ricotta Cheese isn’t hard to make at all and it’s so much cheaper than the store bought stuff. Not only that? It tastes so much better!
Once you’ve started making your own ricotta, you’ll seriously be asking yourself why you haven’t been making it before. It has a different flavor than the store bought stuff but it’s a good thing. It’s a very good thing. Store bought ricotta is honestly kind of flat tasting but with this homemade version, you won’t have that. What you’ll have is a flavorful and fantastic addition to whatever recipe you’re using it in. We not only use it in our lasagna, but I have a bad habit of adding it to my one pot pizza pasta and a lot of other yummy recipes as well.
Homemade Ricotta Cheese Recipe
Ricotta is basically soured milk which means that it is incredibly easy to make. You will need a piece of cheesecloth but if you don’t have one, you can use a coffee filter or old t-shirt cut to fit in a pinch. It won’t work quite as well, but it will work. If you want an herbed ricotta, you can easily do that too. Just go through the last step of the recipe and then add your herbs and stir. I frequently add garlic, basil, thyme and other spices to ours. This recipe does not freeze well so don’t freeze it. Keep it in the fridge in an air tight container though and it’ll last a week or so.
You Will Need:
- Natural unbleached cheesecloth
- 2 Cups whole milk
- 2 Tablespoons white vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- Candy Thermometer
- Twist Tie – like a bread tie
Before you start cooking the mixture, go ahead and lay the cheesecloth across a medium mixing bowl to prepare. You’ll need to cut it down in size, but make sure you leave enough to tie up the edges with a twisty tie. If you’re using a coffee filter, make sure your bowl is small enough that the filter doesn’t drop all of the way into the bowl. You’ll need it to be able to drain out. Tie the cheesecloth together on the bottom or side of the bowl so that it stays put and doesn’t slide out when you pour your mixture in.
Add the 2 cups of milk to a medium saucepan and heat on medium until it reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit on your thermometer. Be sure you don’t let the bottom of the thermometer touch the sides or bottom of the pan. It will give you a false reading. If your milk scorches, your ricotta won’t be “right.” so be careful to watch it carefully.
Once your milk has reached the right temperature, take it off of the heat and add both the vinegar and the sea salt. If you don’t have sea salt, you can use regular. Sea salt will give it a better flavor though. Once you’ve added them, stir very slowly, completely around the saucepan only once.
Let it sit for 2 minutes.
After the 2 minutes is up, pour the homemade ricotta mixture into the cheesecloth covered bowl. Cover lightly and let sit for 20 minutes. I usually just toss an extra piece of cheesecloth over the top to keep any dust or anything floating around the air out.
After about 20 minutes, check your bowl to see if it has finished draining. If not, let it drain a few minutes longer. Ricotta is a fairly “dry” cheese so you want all of the whey out of it. Once it’s dry, store in an airtight container and enjoy!
Oh! By the way! Don’t toss the whey at the bottom of your bowl! It has quite a few uses!
Simple and Easy Homemade Ricotta Cheese
Ingredients
- Natural unbleached cheesecloth
- 2 Cups whole milk
- 2 Tablespoons vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Twisty tie
- Candy thermometer
Instructions
- Cut a piece of cheesecloth to fit over a small bowl leave room on the sides to tie underneath with a twisty tie
- In a small sauce pan on the stove, add 2 cups of whole milk
- Cook on medium heat until your temperature of your milk reaches 165 degrees with your candy thermometer
- Take your pan off heat and add in your vinegar and salt
- Stir slowly once
- Let set for about 2 minutes
- Now pour your mixture over your cheesecloth, let set for 20 minutes
- Chill in the fridge for an hour
- Your ricotta is ready to use after its chilled, or good for up to a week
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