Making your own ricotta: 3 autumnal variations
Ricotta is creamy, mild, and versatile – and you can easily make it yourself with just a few ingredients. With the Cheese Maker, draining works directly in your favorite jar, with no complicated kitchen equipment and no unnecessary transferring.
In this post, we show you how you can make your own ricotta and how to transform it into three autumnal variations with seasonal ingredients: with caramelized fig and thyme honey, with toasted walnuts and fleur de sel, and with rosemary olive oil, pepper, and fleur de sel.
Make your own ricotta with the Cheese Maker
With the Cheese Maker, your Mason jar becomes a small cheese dairy. You make creamy ricotta, cream cheese, or labneh yourself and decide exactly which ingredients go into your cheese. No unnecessary additives, no complicated transferring, and no store-bought cheese from the refrigerated section—instead, a fresh product that you can prepare exactly to your taste and desired consistency.
Homemade cheese also makes the production process visible and tangible: milk, cream, or yogurt turns into a creamy cheese base through heat, acid, and time. You can enjoy it plain, refine it with herbs and spices, or use it for sweet recipes. This turns a few simple ingredients into a versatile favorite companion for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The Cheese Maker sieve insert is placed into a matching wide-mouth jar. For this recipe, the Ripple Mason Jar | Wide | 1.8 L is suitable, for example. The curdled milk mixture is poured into it: the whey drains into the jar while the white ricotta curds remain in the fine-mesh stainless steel insert.
The draining time determines the consistency. After a few minutes, the ricotta is especially creamy. If you let it drain longer, it becomes firmer and works well as a spread or for savory ricotta recipes.
Ingredients for the ricotta base
For about 300 g of ricotta, you need:
1 l whole milk, preferably fresh and non-homogenized
200 ml heavy cream
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ tsp salt
Time required: about 30 minutes plus 10 minutes resting time
Pour milk and cream into a pot and slowly heat the mixture to 85 °C (185 °F) over medium heat. Use a kitchen thermometer for this, as the temperature is crucial for the curdling process.
Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the lemon juice slowly and evenly.
Do not stir further after this. Let the mixture rest for about 10 minutes. During this time, it separates into white ricotta curds and yellowish whey.
Place the Cheese Maker into a clean favorite jar and carefully transfer the curdled mixture into the stainless steel insert using a slotted spoon.
Let the ricotta drain for 5–10 minutes. The shorter the draining time, the creamier it will be; the longer you let it drain, the firmer the consistency will become.
Remove the ricotta from the insert and put it into a mixing bowl. Whip it with a hand mixer for 2–3 minutes until it is visibly lighter and airy-creamy. If it is too firm, you can add 1–2 tbsp of cream.
Season the ricotta with salt and divide it into three portions. Now you can refine each portion differently and serve in a small Nest Bowl.
Three autumnal ricotta variations
Fig & Thyme Honey
Ingredients
- 1 portion of ricotta
- 2 fresh figs
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 tsp butter
- Fleur de sel
Preparation
- Halve the figs and caramelize them in a pan with butter, cut-side down, for about 2 minutes.
- Briefly warm the honey with fresh thyme leaves.
- Arrange the ricotta, top with figs, drizzle with thyme honey, and sprinkle with fleur de sel.
Autumn Favorites & Self-Sufficiency Must-haves
Caramelized walnuts + maple syrup
Ingredients
- 1 portion of ricotta
- 30g walnuts
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp butter
- Pinch of cinnamon
- Fleur de sel
Preparation
- Melt the butter in a pan, add the walnuts and roast over medium heat for 2–3 minutes.
- Add maple syrup and cinnamon, let caramelize briefly until the walnuts are glossy – remove from the heat and let cool down briefly.
- Arrange the ricotta, top with walnuts, and finish with a sprinkle of fleur de sel.
Rosemary olive oil & fleur de sel
Ingredients
- 1 portion of ricotta
- 2 tbsp good olive oil
- 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
- ½ tsp fleur de sel
- Pinch of black pepper
Preparation
- Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over low heat, add the rosemary and let infuse for 2–3 minutes – do not boil, just aromatize.
- Arrange the ricotta, drizzle with rosemary olive oil, and finish with fleur de sel and pepper.
Refining ricotta: Tips for your favorite variation
Ricotta is a versatile base that you can combine in new ways again and again. For sweet variations, seasonal fruits, honey, maple syrup, nuts, or cinnamon work well. For savory dishes, you can refine it with herbs, olive oil, roasted vegetables, garlic, or spices.
If you want to refine your ricotta, you should first taste the basic mixture while it is neutral and then divide it. This way, you can prepare multiple different ricotta recipes from one batch and try out various flavor profiles.
Store the finished variations in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator and consume them promptly. The ricotta becomes especially creamy if you take it out of the refrigerator briefly before serving.
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