Remember how I said it was really easy to make butter?  It turns out that it’s also extremely easy to make cheese.  Fresh ricotta can be made at home in about ten minutes. 

There are a ton of recipes out there: ones that call for lemon, ones that call for vinegar, some that call for heavy cream, some that call for whole milk.  The method I used was to bring five cups of whole milk to a boil over medium high heat and stir in juice from a whole lemon.  I added two tablespoons of vinegar instead.  The milk split almost immediately.  Awesome!  I stirred a bit more and poured the cheese into a cheesecloth (what it’s actually for!!) lined colander over a bowl. 

I’ll let it drain in the fridge for another hour or two then use it in tonight’s vegetarian pasta dinner.

The non-local ingredient in this post was the vinegar.