Ricotta cheese - put it in the 'ridiculously easy to make' category!

Now I had my reservations.

Making cheese? Won't it take ages? Won't it stink up the house? Do I need to put an extra room in the house to store it?

The answer is really easy - if you can boil milk, you can make ricotta cheese. It's really, really, ridiculously easy. Why oh why have I been spending $3.50 for 250gr of ricotta on at least a fortnightly basis when I can make it now for $4.10 for 700grams almost whenever I want?

Good thing about fresh ricotta is you can freeze it too - so if you use it every now and then, chuck it in some ziplock bags and into the freezer - this recipe will keep in the fridge for a week.

Ingredients:

• 16 cups full fat or skim milk (I don't know the results with skim, I'll let you know next time!)
• 1.5 teaspoons citric acid (you can find this in the supermarket with bicarb soda and cream of tartar)
• 1 teaspoon salt (I used uniodised salt but you can use table salt)

Extra apparatus

• Fine cheesecloth (you can buy this online from cheesemakers or at spotlight!) - around 60x60cm
• Cooking thermometer that goes to 100deg c of 200deg F.
  

Method:
In a clean stainless steel stockpot, combine all ingredients.
Put on the stove and start to boil -stir a few times (not a lot) to keep the curds from sticking to the bottom.

When the milk gets to about 95 degrees C (195F) the milk will curdle and separate. Turn off the heat and let sit for 15 mins.

Then drain through cheesecloth on strainerLeave for about 15 -20 mins until the curds become the 'wetness' you desire. Transfer to airtight container and store in the fridge.Ricotta cheese is yummy in Bills Hotcakes (which incidentally I made this morning and added extra egg yolk corn cut off 1 cob and some chives - delicious), Beef Ravioli, Pumpkin Tortellini, Skinny Salmon and Potato Bake and Cannelloni - looooads of stuff!

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