Fresh Ricotta

When I was in Seattle we would make fresh ricotta on a regular basis. It's a very easy process and just takes a little patience, and a thermometer. There are a couple of ways to make it, but generally you need whole milk, acid, salt, and heat. The key part of this is to scald the milk up to around 190 degrees, then add your acid, briefly stir to mix it in, and let it sit for about 15 minutes to start coagulating. From there you strain it through cheese cloth to your desired consistency.

For this particular version I used a combination of heavy cream and milk, as well as preserved lemon, fennel, and Avenue spice to season it. I added some of the spice and a touch of salt to the dairy while heating, so that the flavor bloomed into the cheese itself. When I was finished straining, I folded in the remaining ingredients.

I was going for a soft ricotta to dollop into my Fiskisupa, so I only strained it for about 1 hour. When I made it at work in the past, we would strain it overnight, and the end result was more of a crumbly creamy cheese that we would use to accentuate our salads.

Feel free to change up the flavors, but the process needs to remain the same. If you add the acid prior to the proper temperature, the curdling process doesn't work as well, and your end result looses a lot of the yield you would normally get.

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Ingredients

• cream 4 cups

• milk 4 cups

• vinegar, white 3 T

• preserved lemon, minced 2 T

• fennel fronds, finely chopped 1 T

• Avenue spice 3 T

• salt 1 T

Method of Procedure

1. Put your cream, milk, salt, and 1 T of Avenue spice into a pot and heat on medium.

2. Using an instant read thermometer bring it to 190-195 degrees.

3. Gently stir in your vinegar and remove from heat for about 15 minutes.

4. Line a strainer with cheese cloth.

5. Pour the cheese mixture into the the cheesecloth and strain for around 1 hour. If you want a firmer more set cheese, strain it longer.

6. Remove the strained cheese from the cheese cloth and fold in your flavoring ingredients.

7. Season to taste with salt, minced preserved lemon, your remaining Avenue spice, and your fennel fronds.