Welcome back to the Cheese Corner. For this edition, I decided to do a traditional Italian cheese. I bring you ricotta.

Ricotta is made in the twenty regions of Italy, and must be eaten fresh. It can be baked, salted, seasoned, and smoked. There are many kinds of different recipes you can make with this cheese. Ricotta has a slightly sweet flavor, and it is usually described as similar to cottage cheese. It also has a creamier texture than many other cheeses.

Ricotta is made by heating the whey that is left over after you make cheese. Basically, it’s a use of leftover whey during the production of cheese. During the heating of the whey, the proteins of the milk form white flake-like shapes, which are extracted with a spoon and put into a basket that allows the liquid to drip out of the flakes. The basket is what gives it its shape.

The traditional way of making ricotta dictates that the cheese is made every day with fresh milk. On small farms in Italy, they store the liquid that drops from the basket, sour it overnight, and use a small amount of that liquid to the whey to produce the next day’s batch.

Personally, I have tried some of the different recipes with ricotta cheese. All of them are really good, but in my opinion, the best way to eat ricotta is spreading it on bread. I can just feel the taste of Italy on one plate.