So many folks have blogs these days--do we really deserve to add to the blogosphere? Today we made our first homemade cheese, and I think that is a good enough excuse. We got Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian for Christmas and have been cooking our way through ever since. We were especially curious about his recipes for things we normally buy ready-made: tempeh, hummus, cheese, etc. We do most of our own hummus now, but that's pretty simple. Cheese? That seems almost crazy.
A half-gallon of buttermilk on sale at the local grocery caught my eye. Back in January, I froze it in baggies of 2 cups each, figuring it would come in handy for pancakes or... something else that needs buttermilk. It just seems like you don't have it when you need it. This time, we would be prepared.
Turns out that to make ricotta at home, you just need some milk, some buttermilk, and cheesecloth. It takes about an hour and literally requires less cooking skill than boiling pasta. Forgot to take pictures of our delicious ricotta, but we all loved it and it was better than anything we've bought before. You should try it!
