I was cutting out recipes from a stack of cooking magazines this weekend and came across Donna Hay’s method for making your own ricotta. I had also cut out a recipe from Martha for a grilled asparugus and ricotta pizza. Why not try to make the ricotta for the pizza?

Now, Donna Hay’s version seems to call for 6 cups of whole milk - because I guess down in Australia they sell milk in 1.5 litre bottles?? Who knows… but I know I didn’t feel like buying two litres just to please Donna.

To make the ricotta, you place your 1 LITRE (take that Donna) of milk in a saucepan and heat until it reaches 80 degrees Celsius. Remove the pan from the heat and add vinegar. I used 1.5 Tablespoons of cider vinegar. Of course, if you’re following Donna’s recipe, she uses 2 tablespoons.

Donna’s version calls for white vinegar, but I didn’t have any on hand. I must have used it all when I was cleaning our windows in the spring. (I bet Donna doesn’t have to clean her own windows!) Anyway, I used cider vinegar and as you can see, it still turned out.

Next, you need to carefully scoop the curds out of the saucepan into a strainer lined with muslin. Donna makes it very clear that you can’t just POUR the curds into the strainer - no no - this will ruin their delicate curdiness. So we scooped. But you know what? We totally poured the last bit into strainer.

And it strained. *whistles*

And now we have about a cup of homemade ricotta just waiting to get smeared onto a pizza.