Ricotta cooking recipes at home

Ricotta is called Italian-made curd cheese.Ricotta is made not from milk, but from whey product. Cheese Italian factories for a long time started the production of this product. The demand for curd cheese is huge, and it has gained popularity in many countries. Few people know, but Ricotta can be cooked on your own at home. To do this, you do not need to have any skills and knowledge in the cheese industry.

The wide popularity of this product is largely due to the huge list of useful properties for the human body. Here are some of them:

• Regular consumption of ricotta is an excellent source for the intake of vitamin D and helps to strengthen tooth enamel;
• due to the predominant amount of vitamin A, vision improvement occurs;
• Ricotta normalizes the cardiovascular system;
• the probability of getting cancer is reduced;
• increases bone density;
• curd cheese is an active participant in the formation of a red blood corpuscle, due to the presence of vitamin B12 in the product;
• activates the brain;
• helps strengthen the immune system;
• The quality of the skin and hair visually becomes much better.

Ricotta is famous for its rich content of Omega-3 acid, which brings tremendous benefits to our body. At the same time, the amount of monounsaturated fats in this product is much greater than in the all-favorite cheese called Cheddar. It is worth noting that this product has some contraindications. It is not recommended to use Ricotta to a person who has an individual intolerance to dairy products.

Our recommendations will help you to make Ricotta home from goat or cow's milk with your own hands. This cheese has mostly only positive reviews and is to the taste of many gourmets. The finished store product has a fairly high cost. While the ingredients for its preparation are more than available. The main ingredient is milk. It can be both dietary and high in fat. By the way, a high percentage of fat content in the composition of the milk will facilitate homemade Ricotta.

It is even preferable to purchase milk from a person holding livestock. High fat content affects the taste of the finished product, so it becomes more creamy and tender. Based on the proportions, for five liters of milk, taken as a basis, you will need: five grams of finely ground salt, ten grams of granulated sugar, two hundred milliliters of freshly squeezed lemon juice. If necessary, the last component can be replaced with white vinegar, but it is recommended to do it only as a last resort.

Ricotta can be vegan, in which case milk is replaced with cashews, which are pre-ground in a mixer. Cheese can be chocolate, vanilla and so on.

In addition to food ingredients, you will need certain dishes during the cooking process:

• deep two-liter glass container;
• measuring spoon;
• smaller bowls;
• skimmer;
• kitchen device for measuring temperature;
• paper towel.

The process of making a homemade ricotta is quite simple. It is only necessary to observe the correct sequence of actions. To start, pour the milk into the pan, pre-installing the burner on a slow fire.It is necessary to heat the fluid to a certain temperature in ninety-three degrees. To make sure that the milk has reached the desired temperature will help the kitchen thermometer. When boiling milk begins to form foam. This is evidence that it is time to remove the liquid from the fire. Then fresh lemon juice is poured into the milk and a pinch of fine salt is added. The contents of the pan intensively mixed. Then leave the resulting mass to infuse.

As soon as the composition is slightly cooled, you need to re-pour the freshly squeezed lemon juice (or white vinegar) and a pinch of fine salt. The contents of the pan are thoroughly mixed again and left to infuse over the next thirty minutes. During this rather short period, substantial changes begin to occur in the composition of milk. After half an hour in your pan should form lumps of a beige shade. It turned out a natural home curd. A viscous yellowish liquid is whey, which is necessary for making a second batch of homemade curd cheese.

Using a skimmer, remove a few lumps and visually evaluate their appearance. Thin cheesy clots indicate that the composition has not yet been insisted. Therefore, an additional fifty grams of freshly squeezed lemon juice or white vinegar should be added to the contents of the pan. The composition is left for another fifteen - twenty minutes. Next, you need to strain the curd. Use the filter, stretching over a deep bowl. The filter can be a regular gauze cloth. With the help of a gauze napkin, collected in a knot, the resulting curd curled into a ball, so that the whey product began to drain into a deep bowl.

This process can take anywhere from ten to sixty minutes. If you wish to make a slightly wet Ricotta, experts recommend to interrupt the process after thirty minutes. So, the freshest and most delicious curd cheese is ready to eat. Worth mentioning that Ricotta does not apply to long-stored products. It is advisable to use it or use it for cooking other dishes during the next three to four days.

After the first batch of cheese has been cooked, you can proceed to the second. The remaining whey product must be poured into a container made of enamel and left to infuse in a warm place. It will take about twelve hours for the whey to acquire the required level of acid in its composition. After twelve hours of waiting, the enamelware is placed on the burner with slow fire. It is necessary to heat the fluid to ninety-three degrees. This is important, do not forget to use a kitchen thermometer. It is advisable to periodically mix the contents of the pan so that the liquid does not stick to its walls.

As soon as the serum reaches the specified temperature, turn off the heat and cover the tank with a lid. Leave the liquid to roll onto the whites. Rolled curd protein visually resembles airy beige-colored clouds, wandering in liquid. Cover the colander with two or three gauze napkins and slowly pour the cheese-whey mixture. The clots obtained from the whey product are much smaller than in the first batch. Consequently, the serum will drain much longer, from two to three hours.

The remaining curd mass is slowly removed by skimmer and transferred into the container for further storage. Drained whey can be further used for baking.

Ways to use cheese cheese Ricotta - a huge amount. You can use it as a separate product by adding small slices of tomatoes and greens. Italians spread the cheese on all kinds of bread, pre-browning it in a pan or in a toaster. Due to its consistency, this product is perfect for salad dressing and pasta cooking.

To prepare the filling, it is necessary to use a blender to beat three chicken eggs, one hundred grams of granulated sugar, vanilla extract, Ricotta and bitter chocolate, broken into small pieces. For the dough you will need to mix two hundred and fifty grams of flour, baking powder and fifty grams of sugar. Then put in the resulting mass two teaspoons of margarine and one chicken egg. As a result, you should have a dough with a thick consistency. Dividing it into two parts, place them in a plastic bag. Send to the refrigerated compartment for half an hour.

In the meantime, it is necessary to heat the oven to one hundred and sixty-five degrees and grease the baking dishes with a piece of butter. After rolling one portion of the chilled dough, place it in an oiled dish. Then lay out an even layer of filling. Close the pie filling by rolling the second part of the dough. It is advisable to cover the top surface of the baking dish with foil and send it to the heated oven for twenty-five to thirty minutes. Then, after removing the foil, put the cake back in the oven for half an hour. You can make sure that the cake is ready by piercing it with a toothpick - it should stay dry.

To learn how to make ricotta cheese at home, see the video below.