Homemade Ricotta

A bowl of ricotta cheese with a gold spoon on a wooden surface. The ricotta has a soft, crumbly texture and is white in color. The bowl has blue stripes along the rim.

5 from 1 vote

With 3 ingredients and 30 minutes, you can make incredible & fresh homemade ricotta! The flavor is rich and creamy, and 10x better than buying store-bought ricotta...Make it once and it's hard to go back to the tub.

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Total Time30

Course: Appetizer, Breakfast, Dessert, dinner

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: cheese, homemade, ricotta

Servings: people

Equipment

cheese cloth
temperature probe

Ingredients

4 cups Whole Milk - This process for making ricotta works best if you’re using whole milk. Avoid using ultra-high temperature UHT pasteurized milk.
3 tbsp Lemon juice - freshly squeezed lemon juice is my acid of choice. You can also use distilled white vinegar or citric acid.
1/2 tsp Salt

Instructions

Warm the milk to 200°F.

Heat the whole milk with a pinch of salt in a pot slowly over medium heat until it reached 200°F. The milk will get foamy and start to steam, but make sure that it doesn't boil.

Add the lemon juice.

Turn off the heat. Add the lemon juice and stir gently twice until combined.

Let the milk sit for 10 minutes.

Let sit undisturbed for 10 minutes. After this time, the milk should have separated into clumps of milky white curds and thin, watery, yellow-colored whey — dip a slotted spoon into the mix to check. If you still see a lot of un-separated milk, stir in 1 tablespoon more lemon juice or vinegar and wait for a few minutes.

Strain the curds.

Fit a strainer over a large bowl and line the strainer with cheesecloth. Pour the contents of the pot, curds and whey, through the strainer.

Drain the curds for 10 to 60 minutes.

Let the ricotta drain at room temperature for 10 to 60 minutes, depending on how wet or dry you prefer your ricotta. If the ricotta becomes too dry, you can also stir some of the whey that drips out back in before using or storing it.

Nutrition