There are only three ingredients: milk, salt, and lemon juice. You can use whole or 2% milk, but I wouldn’t go with any less fat than 2%. Here’s how it works.

Combine 8 cups of milk and 1 tsp salt in a saucepan and heat to a simmer. Add 3 tbsp lemon juice and stir. Now’s the fun and satisfyingly icky part, when the curds begin to separate from the whey. It’ll take a couple of minutes for the curds to finish forming.

Using a slotted spoon or a sieve, lift the curds away from the whey, and place them in a cheesecloth-lined strainer. (I actually used a mesh bag that we use for brewing. Any find mesh cloth should work.)

Let it drain for only a minute. It’ll still look wet, but that’s good. You don’t want to dry it out too much.

Transfer the ricotta to a bowl and chill it in the refrigerator. You’ll get about a cup and a half of ricotta from this amount of milk. It’s that simple!

Most people probably think of lasagna or stuffed shells when it comes to ricotta, but you can get creative with it too. For example, I mixed in a little extra-virgin olive oil and salt, spread it on bruschetta and topped it with prosciutto, caramelized onions, and figs.

Or you can sweeten it with sugar or honey, add flavorings like vanilla extract or lemon zest, and use it with a fruit dessert, like so:

You can use it to make cake, cheesecake, gnocchi, cannolis… You can even stir it into scrambled eggs! Whatever dish you use it in, you can pretty much count on it being smooth, light, creamy, and delicious. Yummm.