Low-Key Aspirational: Trad Wife Ricotta
I, like you, have seen videos on social media where a woman is, like, hungry for pizza, so she goes and milks a cow, makes mozzarella, feeds her sourdough, makes dough, harvests her tomatoes, and makes sauce (naturally she puts it through the food mill), and maybe has some kind of home-cured pepperoni in the mix, too. And of course I’m sure it is delicious, but what normal person has that kind of time? This recipe for a totally homemade Alaska snack isn’t that, but it does kind of still have a homesteader vibe.
I gave myself a challenge to make a complete summer meal with all Alaska-grown foods and settled on homemade ricotta, made from Alaska Range Dairy whole milk, homemade sourdough bread, and locally grown cherry tomatoes roasted with Cousin Emily’s honey from Twitter Creek Gardens in Homer. I’m a real fan of Alaska Range Dairy milk. It’s Alaska’s only local cow milk, produced on the Plagerman family farm in Delta Junction. It’s not homogenized, so there is a layer of cream on top, and it’s pasteurized more slowly and at a lower temperature than milk from large commercial dairies. The free-ranging cows eat hay, grains, barley, and peas. The milk has a creaminess and distinct funk—perfect for making ricotta. You should be able to find it at your local health food store. In Anchorage, I find it at Blue Market, Johnny’s Produce, and sometimes Sagaya. In the Mat-Su, you can find it at Three Bears, Bushes Bunches, and even Walmart.
Of all the cheese a person might make, ricotta is pretty easy. It’s a process that takes half an hour, and it’s really more about having the right equipment than anything else. You need a heavy-bottomed pan, a thermometer, a strainer, and some cheesecloth. You heat the milk, add acid, in this case lemon, but you can also sub in white vinegar, and then strain out the solids. A lot of liquid whey will be left. You can stir that stuff right into your pancake batter for extra protein. (I am certain there is also a whole vein of homesteader social media videos about using whey.) If you want to add a little more volume to your ricotta, sub in some cream. I also sometimes sub a tablespoon of hot honey into the tomato mixture.
Homemade Ricotta With Honey-Blistered Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 8 cups whole milk or 6 cups milk + 2 cups cream
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- Honey-Blistered Cherry Tomatoes, for topping (recipe follows)
- 4 slices fresh sourdough bread
- Fresh basil leaves, for garnish
FOR THE HONEY-BLISTERED CHERRY TOMATOES:
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons local honey
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1½ tablespoons good olive oil
Instructions
- Position a large metal strainer over an empty bowl that will hold at least 8 cups. Line the strainer with at least 4 layers of cheesecloth. In a heavy bottomed pot, heat milk and salt slowly over medium-low heat. Use a thermometer to monitor the milk’s temperature. When it reaches 185° F, add the lemon juice and stir gently for 2 minutes. You should see the milk separating into fat solids and whey liquid.
- Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 20 minutes. Ladle the milk mixture slowly into the cheesecloth, allowing the liquid to drip out. Once you have ladled all of it in, let it drain for at least 20 minutes. Then, if desired, you can wrap the cheesecloth around the curds, twist the top, and gently squeeze to remove a bit more moisture.
- Once the tomatoes are prepared, spoon the ricotta onto the fresh sourdough bread slices, spoon the tomatoes on top, and drizzle with some sweet tomato liquid. Garnish with fresh basil.
FOR THE HONEY-BLISTERED CHERRY TOMATOES:
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Whisk the salt into the honey. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, on a prepared baking sheet. Drizzle half the honey over the tomatoes. Bake for 25–30 minutes, until soft, dried a bit, and slightly scorched on the edges. Remove to a bowl. Drizzle in the rest of the honey and the oil.
