As regular readers will know I am cooking my way through Sylvia Colloca’s Made in Italy which was a Tasty Read’s book whey back in 2015. To date, I have two recipes left to cook and I am going to try to get them both done this weekend. However, one recipe which bamboozled me was Silvia’s recipe for homemade ricotta.
I really wanted to make my own ricotta but there was something in Silvia’s recipe that was a stumbling block. It called for a whole litre of whey. I had no idea where I could get that from. I mean I eat a lot of yoghurt but even for me, collecting a whole litre of whey would take about a year! The internet abounds with recipes and ideas to use your leftover whey but falls strangely silent on how to get it in the first place. There’s whey protein powder but that seems to be more for bodybuilding than cheesemaking.
I asked a friend who regularly makes her own ricotta. “Where do you get your whey from?” The answer was a largely unhelpful “From the previous lot of cheese”.
Hmmm….so, with no seeming way to get whey, I turned to the internet. Which did not disappoint. I found an Epicurious recipe that used water and lemon juice instead of whey!
Well whey, hey we are good to go for the making of ricotta! It’s so easy!!!! It’s not a pretty process as it involves curdling the milk and cream with lemon juice.
And then straining the curds out of the whey.
So simple! And the end result is proper ricotta!
Making anything from scratch is great. Making cheese…amazing!!! I was so proud of myself! And this is a great way to use up cream that you may have leftover from making other things. I guess that technically I should have saved the whey from this batch so I could make Silvia’s recipe but I totally forgot. I am thinking about what a goat’s milk ricotta might be like so maybe I will save that batch. 
Silvia says you can use your homemade ricotta for breakfast with honey and fruit. I used mine, with some homegrown oregano to make Ottolenghi’s Ricotta and Oregano Meatballs . They were delicious and I thought I would have some over to take some photos of the following day but we ate them all!
Homemade ricotta and homegrown oregano!!! Look at me being all homestead! I felt like I was from the little house on the prairie!
Now excuse me, I’m off to turn a hollow log into a meat smoker!
Have a great week whatever you get up to!
