If you’ve never made ricotta at home you’re missing out. We all deserve to know firsthand that freshly made cheese is one of life’s simplest joys. And once you see how easy it is to make ricotta from scratch, you can easily add it to your weekly kitchen routine. Fresh cheeses usually last anywhere from one to two weeks, so if you end up making a large batch and are not sure if you can eat the whole amount during the week, there is a method for preserving the cheese for longer.
Salt is the main preservative ingredient in cheese, and also acts to control the rate of fermentation of the cheese curd. Pressing the curd into a wheel compacts the fats and the proteins and releases the excess water that typically promotes premature spoilage. By salting and pressing your leftover ricotta, you can easily have a wheel of house made ricotta salata that will keep in your fridge for up to a month’s time!
After you've mastered how to make ricotta at home, it's now time to try your hand at a homemade Ricotta Salata recipe. Fresh ricotta is drained, salted, and pressed into a wheel and then aged in the refrigerator for one week, ideally in a Cheese Grotto. This is a great recipe for an introduction to cheesemaking.
Author:
Jessica Sennett
Ingredients
2 pounds ricotta, fresh
4 teaspoons salt, no iodine
Paprika (optional)
Equipment List
Ricotta basket
Cheesecloth, or Butter muslin
2 pound weight, like two 16 oz jars, stacked on a plate, or a brick on a plate
Mix the fresh curds with the salt in a bowl. Be gentle but thorough.
Place all the curd in a cheesecloth or butter muslin lined ricotta basket. Fold the
ends of the butter muslin over the top of the ricotta so it is fully
covered. Leave to stand for 1 hour at room temperature with the weight
on top.
Unmold cheese. Turn upside down. Rewrap. Put back in mold. Press for 12 hours.
Unmold cheese. Lightly rub outside of cheese, on all sides, with cheese salt. Cover and place in fridge.
Once each day, lightly salt the outside of the cheese and turn it upside
down. I ended up putting the cheese inside of a salad spinner so that
it could drain. Not a lot of fluid comes out, but enough to make the
bottom moist.
Continue salting and turning for 7 days. On day 7, coat with paprika on all sides (optional).
Age for 2-4 weeks, turning every few days.
Recipe Video
Recipe Note
Troubleshooting: If any mold appears, use moist cheesecloth, dipped in salt water to gently remove.
Jessica Sennett
Jessica Sennett is the founder and inventor of Cheese Grotto. Her whole life is cheese - seriously.
8 comments
Jessica at Cheese Grotto
Hi Christine! Yes, store bought ricotta can work! The plastic container needs evenly placed drainage holes on the sides and bottom to drain off excess whey and to cure the cheese/allow air flow around it. And yes, depending on the salt level of the store bought ricotta, you can mix in more salt for curing, you may just want to reduce somewhat the salt level if it already contains salt. Then you will salt the exterior after it is done draining.
Christine
Hi, can I use bought ricotta that has been placed/moulded in a plastic colander?? If so do I break it up to mix the salt through then re mould it to salt??
Thank you!
Jessica at Cheese Grotto
Hi Gigi! You can definitely use cow’s milk to make Ricotta Salata though it won’t be the original recipe that uses sheep milk. However, sheep milk is very hard to source (not as widely popular in the US as in Italy) so cow’s milk will definitely work! And yes, try out that tofu press to press the wheel in its ricotta salata basket!
Gigi
It has been impossible to find ricotta salata in Houston since Covid hit, so I’m excited to try this! We usually make ricotta with cows milk, do we need to look for sheep or Goat milk to make ricotta salata? Could I possibly use a tofu press to make it?
Donna Hill
Jessica, I cannot wait to make this and coat it with my garden oregano and rosemary. I will serve it at Christmas as an appetizer with luscious warmed crackers and prosciutto. Thank you so much.
8 comments
Hi Christine! Yes, store bought ricotta can work! The plastic container needs evenly placed drainage holes on the sides and bottom to drain off excess whey and to cure the cheese/allow air flow around it. And yes, depending on the salt level of the store bought ricotta, you can mix in more salt for curing, you may just want to reduce somewhat the salt level if it already contains salt. Then you will salt the exterior after it is done draining.
Hi, can I use bought ricotta that has been placed/moulded in a plastic colander?? If so do I break it up to mix the salt through then re mould it to salt??
Thank you!
Hi Gigi! You can definitely use cow’s milk to make Ricotta Salata though it won’t be the original recipe that uses sheep milk. However, sheep milk is very hard to source (not as widely popular in the US as in Italy) so cow’s milk will definitely work! And yes, try out that tofu press to press the wheel in its ricotta salata basket!
It has been impossible to find ricotta salata in Houston since Covid hit, so I’m excited to try this! We usually make ricotta with cows milk, do we need to look for sheep or Goat milk to make ricotta salata? Could I possibly use a tofu press to make it?
Jessica, I cannot wait to make this and coat it with my garden oregano and rosemary. I will serve it at Christmas as an appetizer with luscious warmed crackers and prosciutto. Thank you so much.
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