I love Ricotta Salata and had not have thought of making it until Amanda found a recipe and gave it a go. Now it is going to be a staple cheese around here. You can make this with pasteurised milk that you buy at the supermarket. So no excuses about not having a cow!.
I Heat 2 gallons (about 9 litres) of raw milk to the first bubble -about 185F ( 85C ).
Add 2/3rds of a cup of white vinegar and 2 teaspoons of salt. Stir with a light hand until just mixed.
Set aside to curdle for about 2 hours.
No more stirring. Be good now.
After a couple of hours the curds will collect at the top of the pot. Carefully spoon the curds into a muslin lined colander .
Gather the muslin into a bag and hang to strain. I drain it for the afternoon.
In the evening pour the curds into a muslin lined mold and press for an hour, then unwrap, turn, rewrap and press again for 12 hours at about 10 pounds. (basically a cast iron skillet). On the bench.
In the morning you will have a little white cheese brick of ricotta.
Salt all over with non iodised salt.
Place in a container then into your fridge, wipe, re-salt the surfaces and turn every day for seven days. The salt is dragging out the moisture. I place a ring or small stand under the cheese after a few days so the whey will drain away from the cheese.
After the seven days, wrap in cheese paper and allow to age for a month to three months. I have seen people dust it with paprika at this stage and I look forward to trying that.
Ricotta salata is wonderful, mostly I like it sliced thin and tossed in hot oil until brown then thrown into a salad of tomatoes and olives and greens with a lemon dressing. Delicious.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
43 responses to “How to make Ricotta Salata”
I have always wanted to make my own ricotta fresca for my Italian food. This sounds intriguing as well. It takes time, it seems, but things that are worth it often do. Thanks for sharing this technique.
There is nothing like it and it is so easy! c
Now here is something to tempt my Elly when she comes to look after me, but she will only be allowed to take notes and try it when she goes home. Fingers crossed for Boo.
Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. You made it so nicely with very well instructions and photos. I like all your answers to the comments too. So lovely. I have to buy sea salt because all of our salts sold in the supermarkets are iodised and enriched with fluor… 😦 Is there a special reason for just taking uniodised salt? – Oh, and great thanks to Amanda, too. Must try that soon.
Our weather has come down after two bad heat waves of nearly 40°C to 15°C. I don’t struggle with the rain, nature needs it so badly, even the trees have been dried out, but it’s cold now! My poor bell peppers…
Again all the best for Boo. Poor guy.
Hi Irmi, you always use non-iodised salt for cheesemaking, as the iodine can kill some of the useful bacteria and cultures that help the cheese form its characteristic taste and texture. It’s the same with making fermented foods like sauerkraut. Kosher salt is an easy solution.
Thank you so much, Kate, for letting me know the backgrounds. Alas I could not get kosher salt here, looked for it for a long time. But now I discovered (with the aid of the Internet) that there is an English shop for food in my town! I will check out asap… 🙂
It’s working… the more I see simple DIY food efforts, cheese, yogurt, bread etc the more my psyche accepts this too is possible-doable. Thanks for the reminder, and inspiration… there is no cheese I do not love 🙂 I’m imagining Boo at the vet’s… oh no not again!
Ooh I loved this – have made it up to the curds and whey stage but never hardened it. Am going to make some!
Big smile on my face ’cause actually asked you about the ‘insalata’ bit when you first wrote about s few days back. Think I’ll try it with half the amount of milk first as busy days do not allow too many houseguests at the moment!! Just seems to require a bit of patience and perseverance 🙂 ! Should you come back onto the blog – what did the Vet say re Boo ??? Poor boy . . . Had the MRSA after my cancer operation and nearly did not make it as no antibiotics work . . .
I am going to walk the road to Home farm where the milking parlor is located. They do the second milking starting at 3:30 pm. Perfect for me to say “please may I borrow two gallons of Milk to make ricotta salata.” Three months later I will have cheese!!!!
I love ricotta .. Must give this a go 😃
Lovely. What did you do with the whey? Sometimes in NZ we used to soak bran or similar in it for chicken feed, but recently in England I saw a place selling whey vodka!
The whey goes to the pigs, but I keep a little back to make creme fraiche.. c
I have made ricotta before and it was absolutely easy as pie, can’t wait to try this too!