Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Every Monday morning, I plan my meals for the week and run to the grocery store and it makes my life so much easier. Tonight, I had planned to make shepherd's pie but I was craving stuffed shells for some reason, so I decided to scrap the whole shepherd's pie thing. It is rare for me to stray from my meal plan. I normally use ricotta in my stuffed shells but I didn't have any because I didn't plan to make them in the first place. The fact that I had no ricotta in my fridge really irritated me. I did not want to run out to the store for it, so I decided to try to make some from scratch. Success! I will never buy ricotta again. Once you realize how easy and fun it is to make, you'll never want to buy it again either. And the taste? Oh, the taste! It is so, SO much better than store bought. Try it! This yields approximately 4 ounces.



Ingredients:

• 1 qt milk (any milk will do but my preference is fat free)
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

• Bring the milk and salt to a boil over medium heat.
• Remove from heat and stir in vinegar and lemon juice. Allow to cool completely.
• Pour the contents through a cheesecloth and drain.

• Once drained, close up the cheesecloth around the cheese and fasten.
• Allow to drip for at least an hour. The longer you allow it to drip, the drier the cheese will be. I allowed mine to drip for about three hours because I like it a bit more crumbly. If you want it to be more creamy, stir in a tiny bit of warm milk, to desired creaminess.
• Enjoy!