That sounds so good and easy. I love making cheese. You might want to try this recipe with your ricotta.

Chocolate Ricotta Mousse

1 15 oz container ricotta (about 2 cups)
2 TBL confectioners sugar
4 oz semisweet chocolate, melted, plus more, shaved, for topping

In a food processor, blend the ricotta, sugar, and melted chocolate until smooth. divide among bowls and top with the shaved chocolate. (The mousse can be refrigerated until ready to serve, up to 2 days. Bring to room temp before serving.)

I've tried milk and buttermilk before. The curds were very tiny and it didn't make much. How much does the recipe make?

Even store-bought fresh ricotta is worlds better than the commercial stuff, but I find that homemade takes it to yet another level. Here's the recipe I've been using, from Food and Wine. I'll definitely try this one to compare.

Ingredients
2 quarts whole milk, preferably organic
1 cup heavy cream, preferably organic
3 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions
In a medium pot, warm the milk and cream over moderately high heat until the surface becomes foamy and steamy and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the milk registers 185°; dont let the milk boil. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the vinegar and stir gently for 30 seconds; the mixture will curdle almost immediately. Add the salt and stir for 30 seconds longer. Cover the pot with a clean towel and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours.
Line a large colander with several layers of cheesecloth, allowing several inches of overhang. Set the colander in a large bowl. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the curds to the colander. Carefully gather the corners of the cheesecloth and close with a rubber band. Let the ricotta stand for 30 minutes, gently pressing and squeezing the cheesecloth occasionally to drain off the whey. Transfer the ricotta to a bowl and use at once, or cover and refrigerate.

Make Ahead
The fresh ricotta can be refrigerated for up to 4 days

I'm doing South Beach right now. Any idea how to make a part-skim version homemade? I'm eating 1/2 cup every night as dessert.

Id like to know how much this recipe yields. Compared to what I pay for the fresh ricotta here... its porbably worth it to make my own especially at the holidays when i use tons of ricotta. i make my own fresh mozzarella at the holidays but I buy the curd at a italian pork store.

Eileen, I just found this recipe on About.com, and it seems to yield 4 cups. Despite the warning, I may try this with 2% milk.

Home-Made Ricotta

From Cosa Bolle in Pentola, the Newsletter:
Moving decisively towards food, Diana recently wrote: Though ricotta is often referred to as a cheese, if you want to split hairs it's actually a cheese byproduct, as it's made from the whey that is drained from the curds once the cheese is made. This doesn't mean one cannot make it from milk, however, and I occasionally get requests for a recipe. Gretl recently posted this to the FoodWine discussion list, and it does look good. The recipe is by Grace Pilato, and here are Gretl's transcription and notes:

Homemade Fresh Ricotta (from Grace Pilato)

I have worked on many variations of this recipe - trying it over and over again trying to get the right combination of taste, consistency, and ease of preparation. I have used readily available enzymes from the grocery store, vegetable enzymes from cheese distributors, fresh lemon juice, citric acid from the drug store, yogurt, and run-of-the mill, inexpensive white distilled vinegar.

This recipe is definitely a winner-a perfect ten. The vinegar in this preparation is what makes the milk form curds. If there is too little vinegar, the curds will not fully form and you will get a smaller yield. If there is too much vinegar, you will get an acidic tasting ricotta. Accordingly, the vinegar should not exceed 5 percent of the volume of moisture.

Ricotta is so easy to make and the taste so special that you will want to make it weekly to have on hand for eating and cooking. You will need to have a cooking thermometer for your first couple of attempts. The Taylor instant read pocket thermometer is my preference. It is reliable, inexpensive, and compact.

Yield: 4 cups

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

* 1 gallon whole pasteurized milk
* 1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
* 1/4 teaspoon salt (more if you want a saltier taste and if you are not going to use it for desserts)

Procedure:

1. Rinse the inside of the pot you intend to use with cold water (this helps prevent the milk from scorching). Place 1 gallon milk in large, heavy non-reactive pot on medium heat. Add salt and stir briefly. Allow milk to heat up slowly, stirring occasionally. Soon you will notice steam start to form above the surface and tiny bubbles appearing on the milk. You want it to reach 180-185 degrees, near scalding temperature, just before it comes to a boil. Check the temperature with your thermometer.
2. When it reaches the correct temperature, take the pot off the burner, add the vinegar and stir gently for only one minute. Add salt. You will notice curds forming immediately. Cover with a dry clean dish towel and allow the mixture to sit undisturbed for a couple of hours. You can also begin preparing your ricotta in the morning before going to work and let it sit until you come home.
3. When the ricotta has rested for 2 hours or more, take a piece of cheesecloth, dampen it and place it inside a colander. With a slotted spoon, ladle out the ricotta into the prepared colander. Place the colander with ricotta inside of a larger pan so it can drain freely. Let it drain for two hours or so depending on how creamy or dry you want your cheese to be.
4. Lift the cheesecloth up by the four corners and twist gently. If the liquid runs clear, squeeze a little more. If the liquid runs milky, there is no more need to squeeze. Place in a tight sealed container. Refrigerate. It will keep for up to 7 days. Ricotta does not freeze well.

Notes
I would advise against the use of low fat or part skim milk in making the ricotta. The flavor comes from the cream in the whole milk. For desserts, add 1 pint heavy whipping cream along with the milk. I use this variation when I am making ricotta for a dessert filling such as cannoli, cassata, or cream puffs. It is richer, creamier, and a bit more decadent.

Grace has a cookbook coming out; it's her first. Although it's listed as being available on the Amazon.com site, it won't be printed until January or early February. Take a look. It's called, appropriately enough, "Cooking With Grace."

My recipe says it yields about 3.5 cups, but I don't think I've come close to that.

The recipe that I originally posted yields approximately 2.5 cups, so it definitely doesn't make a whole lot.

I don't know how to make a part skim version, but would be very interested if anybody has had success with that, as this is pretty full fat to just eat all of the time. Oh, but the fat is so yummy!

I found that if I didn't turn the heat off immediately as it curdled, then I got a large sheet of curd that was really easy to skim off the top. I didn't have really tiny curds, so maybe the cream made the difference?

Thanks for the mousse recipe. I'm going to try that, as I've made mousse's with store ricotta before and I've just never liked the grainy texture of store ricotta. But I think it would be delicious with the homemade!

Houscrzy, I'm getting ready to make it using the recipe I got from About.com with 2% milk. I'll let you know how it is. I recently finished both a container of Maggio and Sorrento part-skim ricotta. In my opinion, the Maggio was far superior to the Sorrento in both texture and flavor. And this is from someone who wouldn't touch ricotta 10 years ago, lol!
Nancy

Proudmamato4--I'll look forward to hearing about your experiment!

I have made ricotta out of skim milk using lemon juice instead of vinegar. Make sure you leave enough liquid in it, as when it get too dry it starts tasting pretty nasty. I would think it is OK for cooking or baking with it but not so good just eating raw. I do like yogurt made out of skim milk :)

Just curious, is there something else that can be done with the whey besides discarding it?

I've never made any kind of cheese, but I'm definitely going to start trying out these recipes. DH loves Ricotta cheese, and eats it with just about anything.

Sally

the above recipe makes TWO servings