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Ricotta Salata Recipe


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!

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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.

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