See Kelsey Cook: Ricotta Cheese

The idea of making ricotta cheese seemed so far-fetched until I watched Rebecca on Working Class Foodies show me how. Observe.

Science Experiments. I'm a fan.

Required utensils, ingredients, and seasonings.
Not pictured: The nerd making the cheese.

Strainer was a little small

So I remedied that

Over high heat, bring your milk to a boil.
Continually stir to prevent the milk crusting on the bottom.

Incidentally, watching a pot of water to boil is WAY better than watching & waiting for a pot of milk to boil. Do you know how long it takes milk to boil? I do.

It takes forever. Or at least it seems like it does.

It doesn't really. Just stir for 7-8min. over high heat & you'll get there.

Adding my lemon juice.
There's no point in using a stainless steel mini-pitcher for this task, so don't feel like you have to.

Cook for 2 minutes and watch the curds appear before your very own eyes.

Also, if you didn't know - when milk boils, it doesn't joke around. The stuff boils up and over and onto your stove in less than a minute. No need to be scared of this, since there's no use in crying over spilled milk (or boiled/spilled milk in this case) ... just be aware and try to regulate the heat as best you can.

I spilt

Stirring action

Curds & whey. So cool.

With hot pads, transfer your pot of curds & whey into the designated and prepped straining station.

Mine are a little worse for wear

Scrape out any little-bits left

Smoosh. Spoon. Whatever you do, get your mind outta the gutter and strain.

At this point, you're looking at one newborn, naked baby Ricotta Cheese. Courtesy of you. It's up to you to season this cheese & make it good. So season well.

Not wanting to make a wrong move or potentially ruin the fresh batch of cheese, I seel my eyes shut & do like Rebecca did.

Pinch of salt. And some grinding of pepper.

Zested lemon skin.

Addition of Parm.

Done son.

Let's make some homemade cheese ravioli, shall we? Ohhh. Let us do. Please.

1/4c Ricotta Cheese
2Tbl Grated Mozzarella
1 Egg, separated (or if you're familiar w/Tom Haverford lingo, one Pre-bird or Future Bird)
24 Wonton Wrappers
Dash or Two of Ground Nutmeg

Great Gratings

Save the clear stuff

Mixi Mixi

Dampen the edges w/the reserved egg white. With your finga.

Make like a triangle

Suffocate your filling

Seal so that no air can come in or out.

At this point, you've arrived @ a fork in the road. You can either fry. Or boil.

To boil:

Per Rebecca's instructions, I boil my Ravi Reevees in the reserved whey. I WOULD feed the whey to my dog, but tragically, I don't have a pet to call my own (sad face).

The raviolis take not long at all to cook. Maybe two minutes. Once cooked, serving options are endless.

You could brown in butter w/sage & lemon.

Give it a swirl

Add some whey for sauciness

I couldn't decide which photo looked more appetizing.

So I added both. You can decide for yourself.

Or boil. Then straight to the plate.

Eat them neck-ked. (naked)

A spot of EVOO

Parm Alarm

Mater sauce (tomato sauce) is good too

To Fry:
*I wouldn't suggest frying these guys. They're not horrible, but the wonton wrapper makes the texture taste a little off. However, I'm not the boss of you. Fry if you wanna.