'Ricotta' Make This!
It was a trip to Powhatan (pronounced Powa Tan) , VA during the summer of 2021, I was introduced to fresh-made ricotta. I can’t believe I was blind to the deliciousness and how incredibly easy it is to produce.
Before I give you the easy steps to pure amazement, let me tell you how Powhatan, VA is worth the visit. My sister and I started a podcast during the pandemic as a way to release some tension and have something to do once a week. We basically just talk about nothing and about everything. We are on the phone with each other just about every day and our conversations always bring us entertainment. So, we thought, “why not bring our brand of comedic relief to the world?'“
A follower of The Bell House, fellow Chef and previous resident of Deale, MD, reached out to us after hearing an episode of our podcast and invited us to Powhatan for a weekend trip to drink on the Richmond West Trail. Michael Stotler and his family moved to the area not long before our weekend trip. Oddly enough, I don’t think he thought Tracy and I were serious until we arrived in Powhatan. Luckily for us, Chef Michael Stotler is a cool ass cat and became our Powhatan guide for the weekend.
Michael Stotler driving us around Powhatan.
Here is a video of us promoting our visit. This is a snippet of our brand of comedy.
Promoting our Trip to Powhatan. We also recorded this video underneath a tree in my front yard.
We stopped at various local distillers. All of whom were gracious enough to take us on a tour, let us record their places for our Facebook live and provided tasty beverages and delicious eats.
Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery
However, it was at Mill at Fine Creek where my eyes were opened. We bought a few beers and a home-made ricotta appetizer before heading to another locale. I inhaled the creamy goodness and decided I needed to figure out how to make it myself.
It didn’t take long to find a recipe on-line. A few tweaks of my own to fit my flavor profile and bingo, bango, House made ricotta for all the things that are delicious.
RICOTTA:
4 cups of whole milk
2 cups of cream
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
3 tablespoons of GOOD white wine vinegar
1 cheese cloth (I prefer reusable ones. You can find them on Amazon.)
Mesh Strainer
Suspend a mesh strainer into a pot or bowl and line the mesh strainer with the cheese cloth, set aside. You will use this method to separate the whey from the cheese.
In a large pot, add milk, cream and salt, then bring to a boil. Careful, you can quickly go from boil to overflow. Once the liquid has come to a boil, turn off the heat and add the vinegar. Give the sauce a quick stir and let sit for 1 minute.
Carefully pour the mixture in to the cheese cloth. Let the whey separate from the cheese for at least 30 minutes. The longer you let the cheese strain, the thicker your ricotta.
At this point, refrigerate the ricotta in a closed container and save the whey for making bread or other recipes. Do a Google search for Whey Uses, lots of stuff comes up.
Use the ricotta to eat as is, add some honey or fresh herbs, go savory or use as a filling. Whatever you decide to do with the ricotta, you will never want to buy it again. Sorry, not sorry Ricotta Conglomerates. Make this ricotta the dish your family asks you to bring to all the family gatherings.