Last night, my plan was to make a nice ricotta and then use my mozzarella and ricotta to make lasagna. For dinner. However, my plan only went partly the way I wanted. Ricotta is supposed to be easier than mozzarella. It does have fewer steps. But…it takes much longer! The reason is that it has to get much hotter than mozzarella for the curds and whey to separate. (Mozzarella must form curds faster because of the rennet tablet.) I thought it would NEVER happen. Honestly, when it hit the target temperature (185 F) the curds still hadn’t appeared, and I was about to give up. My husband came over and said “Are you still stirring that?” I just couldn’t give up, though. Not until I knew for sure it wasn’t going to work. Then, to my amazement, curds started to appear. They weren’t big chunks like with the mozzarella, but little bitty things. When it started doing that, I took it off the heat and let it set for 10 minutes as directed. Then, I poured everything into a colander lined with butter muslin (fine cheesecloth). And I had BEAUTIFUL ricotta. And it tasted wonderful! Now, to make lasagna or not. It was getting pretty late. Then I decided I would go ahead and do it. So at about 10 o’clock or so, I had lasagna. I did’t EAT lasagna because there was no way I was going to eat something that heavy that close to bedtime. But I have tonight’s dinner in the refrigerator. 🙂

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