MAKES 300g
• 1 litre organic whole milk
• juice of 1 lemon, about 40ml
• 1 tsp salt (optional)
Heat the milk slowly in a heavy-based saucepan. Stir gently with a wooden spoon to stop it sticking to the base of the pan. Keeping it over a medium heat, bring the milk up to 93°C, which is just below boiling point, at which point the milk will be beginning to steam and froth a little. Remove the pan from the heat immediately once it hits the right temperature, as you don’t want it to boil, and add the lemon juice – you need about 40ml. Stir to distribute the lemon juice and watch as the milk instantly separates into curds and whey, it’s quite exciting... If for some reason this doesn’t happen make sure you have stirred it thoroughly and add a bit more lemon juice.
Add the salt at this point if you want to. I found that I prefer it without, and it also means you can use the ricotta for sweet or savoury dishes too. Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then drain the cheese through some muslin or a clean j-cloth. I tie mine to the tap and let it drip for about 10 minutes, but you can leave it for up to an hour to get a drier cheese. Now you have ricotta! Taste it while it is hot. It is much cheesier than the ricotta you buy in the shops.
Place it in a clean container and cool it in the fridge. It will keep for about a week. It is delicious and creamy, your very own cheese!
NOTES
There is little point in using skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, as it doesn’t result in anything healthier or less fatty –the cheese-making process involves separating the fat out of the milk to make cheese, so you just end up with less cheese. A lady in one of my classes said she once tried it with skimmed milk and got a tablespoon of cheese from 2 litres of milk...
You can also keep the liquid whey from the process and use it for baking, just to make you feel even more virtuous than you already do with homemade cheese in the fridge.