Ricotta Round 2

I've been itchy to make another round of ricotta so I can make some ricotta gnocchi, soft fluffy pillows of dumpling goodness.   Usually they are high carb things made with potatoes, but making them with ricotta brings them to a new level.  Also I've heard that freshly made ricotta is better than store bought for gnocchi because it's drier.  So round two of ricotta.  

Because we had used Rebecca's citric acid for round one, I decided to find a homemade ricotta recipe using lemon juice (since we have an unlimited supply of lemons from our tree).  I decided to do a modified version of this Martha Stewart recipe.  After reading all sorts of recipes I realized I could omit the cream and do just as well by increasing the lemon juice to to 6 tablespoons.

What makes this different from using the citric acid is that you need to get the milk to a VERY rigorous boil and THEN  add the lemon juice (as opposed to adding the citric acid at the beginning and letting the milk come to 185 degrees).  I did try and see if 185 was the right temperature for the lemon juice style of ricotta and the curds barely showed up.  Bringing it to the full boil gave the desired results.

I now have a canister of ricotta ready to turn into gnocchi.  Stay tuned.