Homemade Ricotta Recipe

Make your own fresh Homemade Ricotta in 3 simple steps and about half an hour to enjoy in your favorite recipes!

Have you ever ricotta cheese at home?  There’s really nothing like homemade and making ricotta at home could not be any easier! It really is about time I made my own, after all, most of my favorite dishes all include ricotta. You can scroll down to the bottom of this post for links to some of my favorite recipes.

But before I proceed to this simple recipe, I’d like to share with you how my mother made ricotta!

How my mother made ricotta:

I sat down with my mother this past weekend to ask her about how she made her fresh ricotta. Although she made it on a regular basis when I was a child, you can imagine I was not at all interested in such things. The process is not at all what I imagined!

I recall not looking forward to those trips to the country side to visit a dairy farmer for gallons of raw milk.  I wonder if that’s even legal nowadays?  But that’s what we did on Sunday afternoons, especially during the fall.  When we returned home my mother made huge a huge pot full of ricotta. Afterward my father would sit down to a large bowl of whey with little clouds of ricotta floating in it. I can still hear him sipping that whey!

Making cheese with rennet tablets:

What I found out is that my mother used rennet tablets for the first boiling of the milk in order to make cheese. Have you heard of rennet tablets? They contain enzymes which allow the milk to coagulate in order to make fresh cheese. If you’re curious about this process, you can read more about this here. 

The liquid that’s left behind once the fresh cheese curds are removed from the pot is called whey. After the curds were removed from the pot, she added additional milk to the whey, brought it back to a gentle boil, and then added freshly squeezed lemon juice to make ricotta.

How my nonna made ricotta in Sicily:

The most surprising thing I learned is that my nonna made homemade ricotta cheese by tossing a piece of fig branch into her milk in order to make it coagulate!  Apparently the sap found inside the fig branch acts as a coagulant very much the same way as rennet does.  I immediately began researching this and found others that have tried it and documented it here.

This was quite an eye opener of a discussion! Some day I’d like to get my hands on a fig branch in order to try this method! But until then, I’m going to share with you an easy ricotta recipe that you make any time with 3 simple ingredients that are always available.

Step by Step Instructions:

Here are the ingredients you’ll need: whole milk, freshly squeezed lemon juice and salt.  As for equipment: a large pot and a colander lined with cheese cloth.

The following are step by step images with explanation but you can find the detailed printable recipe with measurements at the bottom of this post. This recipe will yield a little over 2 cups of ricotta.

In a large, heavy bottomed pot, slowly heat whole milk and tsp salt on medium high heat. Heat until you have a gentle boil, that is until steam appears on the surface of the milk and it begins to bubble as shown. You can also use a thermometer to verify when the milk reaches 190F.  This will take about 10 minutes. Do not let the milk come to a full boil or it may scorch.

Remove from heat and stir in freshly squeezed lemon juice. You don’t need to stir it very much and you’ll notice the milk will immediately begin to curdle.

 Let sit for 10 minutes. The milk will continue curdling and thicken as it separates from the whey, as shown below.

How to drain ricotta:

Pour the mixture into your prepared colander lined with cheese cloth and place over a large, deep bowl to catch the whey.

The amount of time you let it drain will depend on the texture of ricotta you are looking for. For looser, wetter ricotta that’s perfect for Pasta with Ricotta, drain for about 10 minutes. 

For a drier, thicker ricotta for making cannoli, for example, here’s what you can do:

• Tie the ends of the cheese cloth around a wooden spoon.

• Hang over a deep bowl (to ensure the bottom of the bundle does not reach the bottom of the bowl) and drain for about an hour.Tips and suggestions for making homemade ricotta:

• Use whole milk for making ricotta as you need the fat in the milk in order to separate into curds and whey.
• An equal amount of white vinegar may be substituted for the lemon juice in order to curdle the milk.
• Do not throw out the whey.  It contains lots of protein and can be used in so many ways including replacing the liquid in bread or pizza with whey. Here’s a helpful post filled with suggestions on what to do with whey. 
• Store ricotta in your refrigerator for up to 3 days. 

Recipes for enjoying your homemade ricotta!

You can enjoy as is or spread it on a slice of fresh bread for an easy breakfast or quick snack. If you’ll be cooking with it, here are a few of my favorite dishes!

To satisfy your sweet tooth:

• Sicilian Cannoli with Ricotta Filling
• Mom’s Sicilian Ricotta Pie
• Sweet Ricotta Easter Calzone
• Sicilian Cassatelle with Ricotta

Or in savory dishes such as: 

• Pasta with Ricotta
• Mortadella, Ricotta and Pistachio Pesto Pizza
• Spiralized Zucchini Ricotta ‘Meatballs’

Let me know how your ricotta turns out by sharing your photos with me!  Tag me with @mangiabedda or #mangiabedda on Facebook or Instagram.  Feel free to pin the recipe for later.  Buon appetito!