Ricotta! This Italian cheese made from fresh sheep or cow milk is often confused with cottage cheese. Indeed, a cursory glance reveals its similarity with the more familiar dairy product for us, both in appearance and texture. However, at least once having tasted ricotta, you will understand the uniqueness of its taste and appreciate it. It belongs to the category of fresh cheeses, which have a soft and smooth texture and a slightly dull, but very delicate taste. However, this largely depends on the variety of ricotta. Its most popular form is used for the preparation of a variety of desserts, salads, and also as a filling for pizza and pasta. Like cheese itself, most of the dishes with it are of Italian origin. And this country knows a lot about delicious food! Next, we will examine in more detail what features ricotta has, the recipe for its preparation and use cases.
Ricotta and cottage cheese: what is the difference?
The word "Ricotta" (Italian ri-cotta) is translated as "digested." From the moment of manufacture, one can trace its significant difference from ordinary cottage cheese. The latter is obtained by heating milk, in which rennet is added , as a result of which it coagulates, and casein precipitates. This completes the cooking process. However, in order to obtain cheese, this precipitate is again heated and combined with the enzyme. The resulting upper layer will be called ricotta.
Varieties
It should be noted that the cooking process depends on the particular type of cheese. Homemade ricotta is prepared in the manner described above and turns out to be very tender both in consistency and in taste. This is Ricotta fresca. It is she who is the basis of numerous Italian desserts, salads and light fillings for other dishes. However, there are other varieties of it, for example, Ricotta salata, which has a salty taste and replaces grated parmesan in a number of recipes. Or Ricotta affumicata - smoked ripe cheese, which can be either an independent snack or used as one of the components in grated form. And also many others. All of them are good in their own way, but we are interested in exactly the classic version of ricotta cheese. The recipe for its preparation will be described in detail in this article.
Cooking at home: what ingredients are needed?
Despite the high cost of the aforementioned cheese in domestic stores, the products for its preparation are more than affordable both in price and in stock. The main components are few, and the main one is milk. You can use both fat-free and whole. The latter is preferable (even better if you can get a rustic one), since the taste of the finished product will turn out to be creamy and very tender. What additional ingredients are needed for ricotta cheese? A four-liter milk recipe will require:
- fine salt - a teaspoon;
- sugar - two large pinches;
- freshly squeezed lemon juice - half a cup (can be replaced with white vinegar, but not worth it).
As already mentioned, a real ricotta is made from whey. Therefore, as a result of the first stage, we will get a "by-product" product in the form of cottage cheese, which you will surely find application. And already at the second stage we will prepare the planned dish. Often, ricotta cheese at home is nothing but a curd. Most housewives stop at the initial result and the precipitate formed by heating is called Italian cheese. But we are not looking for easy ways and we will do everything according to the rules.
The first stage: obtaining serum
Pour milk into a pan with a thick bottom and heat to approximately 90 degrees on a very low heat. Then add half the lemon juice and salt, sugar. Stir thoroughly. After a couple of seconds, you should find that the milk is curdling and flakes are forming on its surface. After this, remove the pan from the stove, cover with gauze and let the contents cool. Then filter the cottage cheese precipitate and wait until the whey completely drains. We remove the resulting cottage cheese in the refrigerator - it can be used for some baking or eat with fruits and berries.
Second stage: cooking ricotta
Reheat the cooled serum - first up to 38-40 degrees. At the same time, it should not be disturbed. Then remove from heat and let it brew for an hour. We put it on the stove again and bring it to a temperature of 90-93 degrees, making sure that the liquid does not boil. Stir in the second half of the lemon juice. We continue to warm the mixture over low heat for 5 minutes, and then remove and cool. After this, the pan needs to be put in the refrigerator for a rather long time - up to 10 hours. If you do this in the evening, then in the morning you can already get out and drain using a colander and a triple layer of gauze. Leave for complete expression for several hours. So homemade ricotta is ready. This recipe is somewhat complicated, as you have to do a double job - get whey and make cheese from it. However, you can simplify your task by buying a ready-made basis, for example, in the market from dealers in rural products. Often, in addition to homemade sour cream, milk, fermented baked milk and other things, they offer customers the whey left over from the production of cottage cheese. Here we need it!
Ricotta Cooking Options: Uses
Salt the resulting cheese a little, transfer to a container and put in the refrigerator to strengthen the texture. Now you have almost real ricotta cheese. The recipes in which it can be used are numerous and varied. First of all, these are Italian desserts. As a rule, in them ricotta is mixed with other creamy cheeses or just fat cream and whipped to an airy creamy consistency. This base is ideally combined with berries, light biscuit or various fruit purees. In addition, sliced ricotta can be added to fresh vegetable salads (replacing, for example, salted feta), pasta sauces (creamy, mushroom, etc.) or used as a filling for thin Italian pizza in combination with tomatoes and fresh, juicy greens .
Cook with profit!
If you needed ricotta to cook some dishes, you can easily implement the recipes by making it yourself. At the same time, you will win - save money on an expensive store product, get absolutely natural and fresh home-made cheese, and in addition - cottage cheese, which is formed at the first stage of production. Good luck in the culinary field!