Guest Blog: For Love of Ricotta, and Friendship with CT

Once upon a time, there were two girls in High School, in the Senior Class Play, and they were the Nurse and Juliet. They spent the whole summer together driving around in a Chevette, and doing “drive bys” of the houses of the boys they had crushes on.

Then came college, and careers, and marriages, and divorces, and children, and heartache, and high points, and celebrations, and family. Through it all they had each other. They still do today.

When I say she is one of the great loves of my life, its no small thing. If you are lucky enough to have a friend who kisses your head when life bottoms out, and brags about you when you do something well, and has your back when you get hurt, you are one lucky person. Hey, she’s seen me breastfeed two babies. She knows the dark ugly parts. That’s love.

SO, when this amazing person sends me texts of her homemade ricotta, I said, “You know, you could always be a guest blogger…” and boom, here we have our first guest blogger, even if this blog is brand-spanking new.

May I introduce, CT. Yes, CeeTee. Or Ceet, if you are asking Siri to call her on my phone…

Before I was born, my parents owned a small ranch on the other side of town.  When I was in high school I learned they sold that house to my friend, Chrissy’s, parents.

What I did not know then was that she would become my best friend in the world. You know, that person you can talk to about the most intimate details in your life, the one who never judges you when you’ve done something monumentally stupid, but will do her utmost to make sure you don’t do it again.

The one you can call at 2:00 in the morning when your world is falling apart.

And the one you can be your truest self with.  All the time.

And she grew up in my parents’ house.

My mother is one of the most artistic and creative people I know.  She knits, sews, crochets, paints, gardens, cooks and can do any pinterest project better than the original.  And with one exception, neither my sister nor I have inherited any of her talents.  I cannot sew on a button.  I paint outside the numbers, I kill plants routinely.  I once crocheted a snake… that’s as good as I got with that.  I was able to absorb some of her cooking skills, but truly only a fraction of her talent in the kitchen.

But you know who did inherit all of my mother’s creativity and talent, my friend, Chrissy.  We’ve joked for years that my mother left all of her creative genes in the house.  And as you can see from here, Chrissy has cultivated those talents and skills.  I’m just lucky to be blessed with two such amazing women in my life, especially when I need something creative done.  Thanks, Chrissy for letting me guest blog.  I’m not sure I’m worthy of such an honor, but homemade ricotta cheese is worth it….

For the past two years, I’ve been obsessed with ricotta cheese.  I cannot get enough of it.  My favorite pizza place makes a Farmer’s pizza featuring roasted eggplant, spinach, caramelized onions and gorgeous creamy decadent globs of ricotta cheese.

I routinely make ricotta toast.  This can be either a savory or sweet treat.  My favorite savory preparation involves an Ezekiel grain or other whole grain, nutty bread, toast it, spread a generous amount of ricotta on it, sprinkle the ricotta with fresh ground pepper, and top with thick slices of tomato that have been salted.  I call that meal my lunch, snack, dinner or I just want to eat gobs of ricotta right now.

On the sweet side, I toast a hearty bread, top with ricotta (a good ¼ — ½ inch – you cannot have too much!), drizzle with honey and top with whatever fresh berries or fruit you like and have in your house.  When I have an extra minute and a lemon in the house, I’ll squeeze a bit of lemon juice and a pinch of zest in my ricotta before I top my toast.

I haven’t mentioned it yet, because I think it does not need to be said, but you cannot use skim milk ricotta.  It is awful.  There’s no nice way to say it.  It is not even a close approximation of the real thing.  It is rubbery, has zero taste and is just BAD!  Do not use it.  Ever.  Walk the extra mile, spend a little more time at the gym, but for the love of all that is holy, use whole milk ricotta cheese.  Every time.  There are no exceptions to this rule.

I’m passionate about my Italian cheese, what can I say?  So, when twice recently I was at restaurants that served house made ricotta cheese, you can imagine my delight.

And then I thought, wait, is this a thing?

Can I MAKE ricotta cheese?

My dear friends Google and Pinterest soon turned up lots and lots of recipes and lo and behold the answer was YES!!!!

With minimal ingredients and effort, you can make your own ricotta.  And, today I did.  And Holy Mother of God, it was fanfreakingtastic.

I used lemon juice as my acid which resulted in a slightly lemony ricotta and I’m not mad at that, at all!  But I’ll probably only use this batch for sweets (read: eat it straight out of the bowl with a spoon).  Next time I’ll try vinegar to see how that works.

The basic recipe I used was the one from Barefoot Contessa, because she’s my idol, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/homemade-ricotta-recipe-1923290

but most of the recipes I saw were very similar.  I’d love to tell you how my family and friends liked my first foray into cheese making, but I’m not entirely convinced that I’ll share any of it with anyone.

Thanks for being my person, Chrissy!  I love you enough that I’ll save you a bit of ricotta, but you better come over fast.

 

Back to Chrissy:

Since the recipe is originally from The Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network, I am pasting the original link above into the recipe, but I have not changed one thing, I don’t mess with Ina’s recipes. They are basically perfection.

I am always proud of my friends and their kitchen achievements, so be on the look out for more guest bloggers!

I hope you enjoyed this post, and as always, thank you for coming to the table!

Chrissy

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