To Eat Dinner @ Home: Ricotta in Stuff Edition

Do you ever make your own ricotta? I have done it several times, and it's much easier than you might think. There are only FOUR ingredients and it takes under an hour. I use Ina Garten's recipe. Per true Ina fashion she's like, use "GOOD white wine vinegar." She always points out to use good ingredients. Thanks, Ina! But also, you can use less good ingredients with magnificent outcomes. For example, I used CHEAP white (NOT wine) vinegar. And, it produced a delightful outcome. Fluffy, perfect ricotta.

NOTE: Ina says to drain the ricotta for 20-25 minutes. I always aired on the 25 minutes side because at the 20 minute mark the ricotta always seemed too mooshy. HOWEVER, it always ended up (after refrigeration) more like a thick, almost buttery spread than a fluffy, airy, moist cheese. I prefer the latter even though it contains the word "moist" in the description. Sorry. THIS TIME, I eschewed my fears and stopped the draining after 20 minutes. It was a success! There was definitely extra liquid, but that can be stirred in before you eat it. Don't worry!

Last week, we used the ricotta for the base of the bulk of our eatings. I used it to make spaetzel and Mauerbaker used it to make lasagna.

The spaetzel did not turn out how I anticipated, but in a way that was A-OKAY! When I think of spaetzel I think of tiny little dumplings covered in butter that I can't stop eating. This version resulted in slightly larger dumplings and I will want to put them in the next soup I make.

I covered them in the pesto I had made earlier in the week and then threw them on top of some greens that I had made a lemon vinaigrette for. I liked the vinaigrette, but Michael was like: "OH!SOUR!" So. I win some I lose some.

HOWEVER, the ricotta worked really well in this recipe. I can't say that it worked better or worse than store bought, but I don't care, because it felt good to use something I had homemade and then topped that homemade thing with a homemade sauce. I just liked all that.

I will say two more things:

1. You could easily halve this recipe so as not to have leftovers for a dinner for 2;
2. If you DO have leftovers and like me often prefer leftovers in their cold form, do NOT eat these cold. They are MUCHMUCHMUCH better warmed up.

Then, the lasagna. I happen to LOVE lasagna. My husband happens to hate lasagna. But, I was convinced that this easy, one skillet, (mostly) fresh ingredient type lasagna would win his heart and belly.

I did not take this picture. I got it from this post on A Cup of Jo, which also has the recipe.

This recipe has sausage meat, tomato sauce (canned tomatoes, but it's not some overly-wrought sauce with a bunch of sugar), fresh mozzarella, homemade ricotta, garlic, onions, fresh basil, and packaged pasta (OMG you idiot, the Interwebz trolls say. Pasta has all kinds of stupid flour that's bad for you.). So it's like a mix of things, but generally, airing on the fresher side. (OK, trolls. Got it.)

Notes on this recipe: we opted for spicy italian sausage (sweet was also an option); we swapped out mascarpone for ricotta but next time would add more ricotta than the recipe suggested for mascarpone; (because SWIZZLESTIX! homemade ricotta is so creamy and amazing and not grainy like store bought) and the sauce was too chunky. We'd probably use fewer whole tomatoes or slightly blend it with an immersion blender. Either way, there was just too much sauce.

I also made a side salad to go with the lasagna (more greens in 2015!). Greens, marinated artichoke hearts, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, and feta. It was a real nice mix.

The verdict? I loved it. Michael thought it was okay the first night served warm, but was a member of the CPC (clean plate club) when we had it the second night served cold. I also prefer it cold, but that's just because I'm a sucker for cold leftovers. And with this huge pan of lasagna, there were so many to have. (The cold lasagna was especially welcomed when I came home from a night out with friends and was FAMISHED.)

I might not have won his heart and belly with this recipe, but it wasn't a total flop. I loved it; so there's that.