Recently I got the cheese making bug, so I got my Slow Food friends together and some recipes for 3 simple cheeses - mozzarella, mascarpone and ricotta.
We decided that mozzarella was way too labour intensive and the method wasn’t simple. Mascarpone was easy, but had to wait 48 hours to use it.
Luckily ricotta saved the day with its simplicity and great results!!
Spinach and Ricotta Pie
Ingredients
- 1 bunch shallots, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 large bunch of silver beet, chopped
- ¼ cup of each chopped dill and parsley
- 500g full-fat ricotta cheese
- 100g feta cheese
- ½ cup parmesan cheese
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 8 sheets Filo pastry
- 100g butter, melted
Method
Sauté shallots, garlic and silver beet in a splash of olive oil until cooked.
Allow mixture to cool and drain off excess liquid if any.
Combine with other ingredients except Filo and butter.
Layer 5 sheets of buttered Filo in a 25cm pie dish, pour in mixture, place remaining 3 buttered sheets on top and tuck in the sides.
Bake at 180 for 25-35 minutes or until golden.
Ricotta is a fresh, soft, snowy white cheese with a rich but mild, slightly sweet flavour.
The texture is much like a grainy, thick sour cream.
Ricotta is naturally low in fat, with a fat content ranging from 4 to 10 percent. It is also low in salt, even lower than cottage cheese.
It is a very versatile cheese that is used for savoury dishes as well as desserts as in this week's recipe for Baked Ricotta Cheesecake.
You will not feel at all guilty eating this delicious cheesecake which uses Ricotta to replace the higher fat mascarpone (made using cream instead of whole milk)!
Baked Ricotta Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 200g digestive biscuits
- 75g unsalted butter, melted
- 125g caster sugar
- 650g ricotta
- 1 tbs cornflour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 eggs, separated
- 150ml sour cream
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Grease and line the base of a 23cm spring form pan.
Crush the biscuits in a food processor, then add the butter and mix to combine.
Press into prepared pan.
Beat together the ricotta, 125g of the caster sugar, the cornflour, vanilla, egg yolks and sour cream.
In a separate clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold into the ricotta mixture.
Pour over the base and bake for 50-60 minutes until golden.
Technically speaking Ricotta is not a cheese - it’s a by-product of cheese made from the whey leftover from other cheeses.
The name Ricotta is actually Italian for “twice cooked” and it’s probably the most versatile of all the fresh cheeses.
It comes in a variety of textures - some creamy, some a little drier - it all depends on how long you drain the curds.
You can buy it fresh or pre-packaged – but fresh is always better.
Ricotta is the easiest cheese to make. Simply bring 2 litres of milk to just below simmering (90 Degrees) add a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of citric acid dissolved in a tablespoon of water and watch the magic happen.
It will turn into curds straight away; Little Miss Muffet would have loved it!!!
Put it to one side for 2-3 hours, scoop out the curds and strain it through a fine sieve or muslin lined colander and refrigerate, keeping it in the strainer to allow water to drain.
It can be used straight away but I always find it best if it drains for overnight in the fridge.
At the Cooking School I have included cheese making in some of the Italian classes, and everyone loves making and using it.
At this time of year my garden is full of silver beet, and my favourite way to cook it is in a “Spanokopita” which translates to Greek Spinach and Ricotta Pie.
Above is my favourite recipe for Spanokopita. The shallots and herbs go well with ricotta.