Ricotta is a very tasty cheese, it can be used both in salads and desserts, and simply eating ricotta for breakfast is just wonderful. Unfortunately, those of its brands that are presented in stores at a more or less affordable price are very expensive (unreasonably expensive, given the composition of the product).
Real ricotta is a byproduct of pecorino cheese. The whey left over after the pecorino was made was heated, sometimes with the addition of fresh milk.
So real ricotta is, in theory, sheep's.
But... many years have passed, ricotta has stepped across the borders of southern Italy, and now it is made from cow's milk, and in some places - from goat's.
This recipe is closest to the taste of Calabrian ricotta. I came across it in the book "My Calabria" (My Calabria), written by Janet Fletcher and Roseta Constantino.
At first I was afraid to repeat it, but it turned out that everything is not so difficult. Plus - it comes out very inexpensively. Ultra-pasteurized milk cannot be used here, the best will go what is bought for bottling, you can even from a barrel.
Just from this milk (if it is from a good farm), calmly remove the glass of cream you need in the recipe.
The average price of draft milk in Russia (from what I saw) is 32-36 rubles, so everything comes out very economically.
We take:
• 4 liters of milk
• 180 ml heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• Rennet - the amount advised by brand manufacturers (for example, Ceska-Lase enzyme will need 7-10 drops)
So, how we cook:
Mix milk and cream and boil. Boil until a cap of foam appears on the surface. As soon as you see the foam, remove it and pour it into another pan, so that the taste of burnt milk appears.
Just at this moment, add salt.
When the temperature of the milk drops to 38 degrees, dissolve the rennet in cold boiled water (the proportions, again, the manufacturers give different, usually this is part of the enzyme to 5-10 parts of water) and pour into milk.
Here you need to let the future ricotta stand quietly for about 10 minutes, until it thickens, and then there will be dances with tambourines.
A large cross is cut on the top with a wooden spoon, then the mass is quickly mixed with the same spoon, for 15-20 seconds, to break the clots.
Then we take a slotted spoon and very slowly begin to stir the mass, collecting the clots to the center of the dish. The movements should be very slow - for a full circle - twenty to thirty seconds, and at the same time you need to interfere in one direction.
When such a good lump is formed, we drain the whey (into a sieve lined with gauze), and then we begin to transfer it to another very fine mesh sieve. We put it over a bowl for several hours - so that all the whey is finally glass, and at the exit we get a wonderful homemade cheese. Very tasty!
Bon Appetit!