Easy Ricotta

I made my first batch of ricotta cheese this afternoon and I can only wish I'd already been making it for years. It's great and very, very simple.

straining the curds

Months ago, when we first got our yoghurt maker, I clicked around to see what might be done with the whey. I came across a few pages that talked about making ricotta using whey from other cheesemaking and a few more that talked about using the whey from yoghurt making. In the end, I just ended up using it in the bread machine when I made bread, rolls, or pizza crust. But I found myself with an abundance of whey and decided to revisit the ricotta idea after reading a book about this guy's travels in Sicily, where various types of ricotta were everywhere. As luck would have it, I found a thermometer in our local shop the other day and picked it up, so I had everything I needed to try out this recipe 

just off the stove

Bill is not usually a fan of this kind of thing plain, although years ago I used to sometimes pick up a tub of ricotta and mix it with fruit and he liked that. He likes this though, even plain. This will be very handy to have around--it can be mixed with fruit or herbs, so can go sweet or savoury. We always have smoked salmon on Christmas Day and mixed with some herbs, this will be much better than cream cheese with that. I plan to have some of it on toast for breakfast tomorrow, topped with some of the cranberry jam I made the other day.  

Tomorrow I am making cranberry orange muffins--I bet this'll be good on those, too! 😋

 

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