Homemade Ricotta Cheese Recipe

Today, for the first time, I made ricotta cheese. That’s right, from scratch. Sounds a little fancy for a Wednesday afternoon activity doesn’t it? But as it turns out, making ricotta is about as simple as making porridge. It involves stirring two ingredients, followed by straining. Et voila! No more. A monkey could probably do it. 

The inspiration for making ricotta was derived from my recently purchased copy of Mark Bittman’s book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It’s a book I came into contact with when staying with my friend Alice in Munich. At first I was slightly disturbed – it doesn’t include any pictures. I’m a visual creature and most of my cookbooks are filled with mouth-watering images of dishes. I soon realised however that Bittman’s tome is akin to an encyclopaedia covering everything from making bread, to pasta, and (to my surprise) cheese. I bought a copy as soon as I could, and have been reading it for the last couple of weeks.    

Ricotta is a huge part of Italian cuisine, and Italian cuisine is very influential in Australia. Partly because of this, and partly because at the age of thirteen I promptly announced I was a vegetarian, spinach and ricotta cannelloni was on weekly rotation at my house. We used store bought ricotta, and until I read Bittman’s book, I had not actually considered making fresh cheese.  

Traditionally ricotta can be made with sheep, goat, cow, or buffalo milk, but most store bought varieties are made of cow’s milk. It’s also technically a curd, as opposed to a cheese, as it’s made from whey. In Segur le Chateau, our petit epcierie sells local fresh goat’s cheese, which I now realise may be made in a similar way to ricotta. I need to look into that!

Ricotta takes on the taste of the milk that it is made with, so it’s wise to source milk that is as fresh as possible. I asked Kristoph if he’d consider buying me a cow and milking it. He declined. We agreed we’d keep our ear out for fresh milk sources from nearby farms. In the meantime I settled with an organic, whole, cow’s milk.  

Here’s the very simple recipe:

Recipe:

Note – you will need some muslin or cheesecloth to use for straining.

2L whole milk

2 cups buttermilk

Sea salt

Step 1: On a medium to high setting, heat the milk in a heavy bottom pot for 10-15 minutes until the milk bubbles up the sides. Stir it occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching.  

Step 2: Add the buttermilk to the boiling milk and stir. Like magic the curds will separate from the whey. Once separated remove from the heat and stir in a pinch of sea salt.

  

Step 3: Strain the mixture through a muslin cloth over a strainer. The curds will collect at the bottom and the whey will drain off. Leave for between 30 and 60 minutes depending on how dry you would like the ricotta. The longer you leave it the drier it will become. 

Step 4: Eat right away, or scoop into a sealed container and refrigerate. Use wthin 3-4 days. 

 

So this week I am focusing on developing my ricotta making skills, and experimenting with ricotta-based recipes. In  the next couple of days I’ll be posting on my take on ricotta gnudi with sage and brown butter, and then moving on to baked ricotta.

Do you have any favourite ricotta-based dishes? If so, please do let me know in the comments box below. I’d love to read your ideas, and to try more savoury and sweet ricotta dishes.

Pumpkin and blue cheese savoury muffins

Muffins again I hear you mumble.... well, perhaps I could have made something else, but two events serendipitously occurred yesterday that led to these savoury treats. 

The first, occurred as I was reading through some food blogs and found a recipe from some Kiwi’s currently based in Melbourne, my home town. They’ve self-published a cook book entitled Martha Goes Green. The recipe was for pumpkin and feta savoury muffins. I do love a savoury muffin, but it’s been quite a while since I’ve had one.

In my Melbourne University days in the mid-1990’s, I worked at the Rathdowne Street Food Store. Each day we’d serve up varying combinations of sweet and savoury muffins. Those staff lucky enough to be working late, would take home any leftovers.  At that point I lived on Lygon Street in a giant terrace with six male engineering students. Needless to say, when Foodstore goodies arrived home, it was a harmonious, if not slightly overcrowded, happy house.

Savoury muffins are not so common in Europe. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever come across one. The recipe in Martha Goes Green managed to remind me of a forgotten favourite, and also left me with the bitter-sweet taste of nostalgia for Melbourne, and days gone by.   

And so, I went about my morning yesterday, trundling about the woods and the village, in my wellies, thinking of Melbourne, but also of the astounding beauty and colours of autumn in France.

The second serendiptious event occurred when I arrived on the Comtesse de la Tour’s terrace. I was greeted by an incredibly bright pile of squash, arranged an a still life. I was very pleased when I learned these were a gift from another very lovely neighbour. She thought I might like to photograph them and then make something tasty.

Well, yes indeed I would! And did!

And so, pumpkin and blue cheese muffins were made in Segur le Chateau, for perhaps the first time. I have to confess, I was inspired by the recipe in Martha Goes Green, but added and subtracted a few bits and pieces. Fetta is not common here, but blue cheese is abundant. Here’s my version:

 

Recipe

2 cups chopped pumpkin

Glug of olive oil

A little butter

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 eggs

1 cup milk

Ground black pepper

Sea salt

2 cups plain flour

2 table spoons mustard

Baking powder

Step 1: pre-heat the oven to 180C. Chop the pumpkin into small cubes. Toss the cubes in olive oil, seat salt and pepper. Roast for 25 minutes. 

Step 2: Mix the parsley and the mustard. Add most of the pumpkin (once it’s cooled), save 12 cubes (to top the muffins later). Then add most of the blue cheese, again save 12 cubes.

Step 3: Sift the flour and the baking powder, then stir into the mixture.

Step 4: In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs and milk together. Then add to the mixture. Add salt and pepper. Then stir in slowly, folding the ingredients together gently.

Step 5: Add the mixture to your (greased) over tray. Cook for 20 minutes.

PS – If you are in Melbourne reading this, feel free to leave me a comment on the Foodstore. Is it still good? I recently read that it is, but is filled with overpaid 30-somethings attempting to recreate their 20-something selves... doesn’t sound all bad.

Spare pears

A friend of mine mentioned recently she had loads of pears rotting her garden, as they dropped from the tree. Super keen foragers, Chris and I, traipsed up to Jen’s with our big African basket. We arrived to find it wasn’t actually Jen’s tree, but a neighbours.

After collecting all the dropped pears with cooking potential, we picked a few more from the reachable braches and headed home with our loot. We’ve enjoyed sliced pear and cheese, and pear and blue cheese salad over the last few days. The Italian proverb “al contadino non far sapere quanto è buono il formaggio con le pere” (don't let the peasant know how good cheese is with pears) springs to mind.

Lastly, we also enjoyed pear and almond crumble (pictured below). Here’s the recipe:

Recipe

5 large pears, peeled and sliced

A handful of ground almond

A handful of sliced almonds

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup plain flour

50 grams butter

Mascarpone and honey (to serve)

Simmer the sliced pears for 5 minutes. In the meantime, mix the flour, ground almond, sugar and butter together. Use your finger tips to work the mixture until you get the consistency of bread crumbs. Once you’ve achieved this drop in the sliced almonds. Once the pears are cooked, drain and arrange in a baking dish. Place the crumble mixture over the top, spreading evenly and covering completely. Cook at 180 degrees for around 20mins, or until the crumble is browned.

Serve hot, with mascarpone mixed with honey.       

Thanks to Asheline Appleton for the excellent photo, berries and dinner!

Segur le Chateau evening farmer's market

One of the highlights of summer in Segur le Chateau, a farmer's market takes place every Monday night during July and August. Local produce is available for purchase, including local BBQ'd trout. Residents and tourists gather on the long wooden tables enjoying cheeses, wines, fresh berry sorbet, crepes with homemade jams and chocolate covered hazlenuts. Each Monday sees a varying array of live music.