“Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.” -Henry David Thoreau, American transcendentalist, tree-hugger, political activist, and writer

Making your own ricotta cheese has to be one of the most easiest-est culinary endeavours there is.  Procedurally speaking, it amounts to nothing more than bringing a pot of salted milk (and cream, too, if you like) to a boil, then turning off the heat, stirring in some freshly-squeezed lemon juice, letting it sit for a few minutes, and then dumping it all in a cheesecloth-lined fine mesh strainer to drain.  Colloquially speaking, if you can boil liquid and stir something, then you can do this.  Cross my heart.

There are, in my opinion, endless reasons to have this shockingly simple recipe for homemade ricotta cheese as part of your kitchen repertoire.  I say “shockingly simple,” and I swear I’m telling the truth, but I should back up a bit first because I definitely took the scenic route along the Trial-and-Error Path before finally arriving, weeks later, in Shockingly Simpletown.  It’s typical of me to over-complicate things (and boy, do I have a history of doing just that…..), but this is what happens, I suppose, when you’re both a perfectionist and an idealist.  Not satisfied with leaving well enough (erm, the way I learned to do this at culinary school) alone, I set out to achieve something of a “Ricotta Nirvana” instead.  My initial consideration was the quality of the milk.  I wanted, of course, the best I could find, so my first stop was the Ronnybrook stand at my local farmer’s market in Grand Army Plaza.  I brought it home, followed the instructions in my textbook to the letter, and…..it didn’t work.  From a full quart of the best milk available to us in New York City, I got less than a tablespoon of curd.  I thought maybe the lemons I had were weak on the citric acid front, so I marched off to Chelsea Market and scored a little container of powdered citric acid from Buon Italia, and another quart of Ronnybrook milk from their Chelsea Market shop.  Once again, no dice.

Turns out, as wonderful as their milk is for everything else, the Ronnybrook stuff just won’t make good ricotta.  I have no idea why that is, but once I took it down a notch and went with the regular supermarket stuff, I got great results right off the bat.  Go figure – lesser-quality milk turns out to be the secret to perfect homemade ricotta cheese.  Still, I felt it lacked a properly creamy texture and rich flavor, so this, my most recent attempt, included a bit of heavy cream (from Ronnybrook!  I knew I’d figure out a way to get that stuff in there!) and I got exactly the result I wanted.  (Seriously, this post has been patiently waiting as a draft for weeks and weeks while I figured this out.  Mmhmm, yep, perfectionist.)  The fresh, homemade stuff kicks the store bought nonsense right in the booty, and is, I would argue, an entirely different animal.  I won’t go back, that’s for sure.

This recipe has so much versatility, too.  When I cater weddings at Brooklyn’s beautiful Montauk Club, I often make little baguette toasts smeared with house-made ricotta, sprinkled with chopped toasted hazelnuts and lemon zest, and then finished with a light drizzle of honey.  They’re passed around during cocktail hour by the wait-staff on fancy little silver trays lined with crisp white linens.  What the wedding guests don’t see, though, is me, wearing a devilish grin and a chef coat that’s waaaaay too big for me, shielded safely behind the kitchen walls, shoveling the extras in my mouth when no one is looking.  (What?  They’re really good!)  At home, it’s wonderful in lasagnas, raviolis, pizzas, pancakes, desserts…..or just spread on some toast for breakfast.  That works too.  It can be flavored with all kinds of things, too:  herbs, citrus zest, spices, honey, bacon…..

You’ll eat your hat when you discover for yourself just how easy this is to make.  Ok, well, maybe not your hat, but how about some really good, fresh cheese instead?

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon whole milk

1 cup heavy cream (NOTE:  This is totally optional if you want to cut some calories, but seriously – it makes a difference.)

1 1/2 tbsp. kosher salt

4 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Instructions:

1.  Bring the milk, heavy cream, and salt to a boil over medium heat, stirring rather frequently to prevent scalding.  You don’t want a super intense flame/heat source here.  You want the mixture to come up fairly gradually.

2.  As soon as the liquid begins to form a lively bubble, turn off the heat and pour in the lemon juice.  Stir quickly, just to incorporate, and then let the pot sit for at least 5-10 minutes to let the citric acid do its job.  While the pot rests, line a fine-mesh strainer with 2 plies of cheesecloth that has been rinsed and wrung out.  Place the lined strainer over a large bowl.

3.  After the pot has rested, the milk mixture should have separated into curds (solids) and whey (liquid).  Carefully ladle all of the curds into the cheesecloth-lined strainer to drain.  Curds should be left to drain for about an hour.  The whey can be discarded or can be used instead of water or stock when making rice.  The drained curds are your homemade ricotta!  Use immediately if possible, or store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator and use within 2-3 days.

Yield: This will vary slightly based on a number of factors, but I got just shy of a quart out of this recipe.