Making Ricotta Salata...
Ricotta Salata is a salted ricotta that is from enough to grate. It can be made from the ricotta you prepared in the first recipe. Ricotta Salata is an aged cheese so ensure all equipment is sterile or very clean.
- Drain: tie your ricotta up in a cheese cloth and allow to drain for a few hours. Place the ted up cheese onto a dish and carefully balance weight on top (a full jam jar is about the right weight).
- Press: turn the cheese over after one hour. Replace the weight then press for a further 12 hours. Drain any whey that is released.
- Salting: lightly rub liquid salt over the surface of the cheese and place on a rack in your fridge. Every day for five days, re-salt and turn the cheese.
- Maturing: age the cheese for 2-4 weeks in your fridge. If any mould forms on the surface, remove with a clean cloth and salted water. Ricotta salata can be eaten at any point from the first pressing/salting but the longer you leave the harder and more flavorful it becomes.
Extra information...
- Quantities: if you want to make more/less cheese just adjust the ingredients proportionally.
- Cleanliness: keeping your cheesemaking equipment clean is important but especially so when making an aged cheese such as ricotta salata. Sterilize any equipment with boiling water or a chemical such as Milton’s.● Salt: with both cheeses; more salt will make a drier cheese.
Salting Cheese
Salt does different things to the cheese depending upon when it is added.•Drying: Adding salt to curds extracts water giving a drier cheese. If you add it early then most of the salt will be washed away so it won't really affect the favor.•Preserving: towards the end of the process, salt sprinkled over the surface or used in brine will help to preserve the cheese. However, in order to truly preserve cheese LOTS of salt is needed
