Good Ricotta on the North Side?

I am hoping to make a nice dessert in the next couple of days that involves good quality ricotta. Any ideas on where to find it?

How far north ? Not sure how you define 'good', but Bari or Whole Foods certainly have ricotta.

Yeah, I don't really know how I define good so I am not much help. Bought some from Trader Joe's last night and I am going to try it on a white pizza possibly this coming weekend.

However, if anyone has any idea of where to get buffalo milk ricotta I would be eternally grateful. I had some a year ago and it was one of the better things I have ever eaten.

While I don't know where to get buffalo ricotta, there's a great cheesemaker in Chicago called Cellini that distributes its high-quality ricotta to many Italian markets throughout the area. I get mine at either Joseph's on Irving, or Rex on Harlem.

Laugh if you will, but the Dominick's in my neighborhood has a fairly decent cheese section, and they carry a very good ricotta by Mozzarella Fresca. It's creamy and grainy and on the dry side, not very curdy like a lot of ricotta. You don't need to drain it prior to using and I love the results when I use it in lasagna. There's another brand at Whole Foods that I like for similar reasons but I'm blanking on it now.

Dominick's
2021 W. Chicago Ave
Chicago IL

My MiL is the ricotta queen. When I first joined the family I mentioned some ricotta (which, in her Southern Italian dialect sounds like 'rrri-GOT" with a very faint "uh" sound at the end, more like the releasing of the long-held "t") and she asked what kind, the look on her face told me what she thought of most store brands. Thankfully, I learned.

One easy test is ingredients: no vinegar! no starches! no gums! Good ones usually have just milk, whey and salt, IIRC. This site has a nice discussion about the addition of extra acid and why it's better not to do. And, if you make your own cheeses and have why leftover, you'll even learn how to make your own.

I concur that Whole Foods is very good. aschie30, I seem to recall that some Dominick's used to have a good one, so maybe that is the same still. I also seem to recall she doesn't get it there anymore; not sure if there isn't a Dominick's close by her or if the one she goes to has changed suppliers.

For price and quality, our favorite is at A&G. They have two or three kinds. One is drier and one is more wet, but not too wet (it doesn't have to be drained). They will let you sample them to decide which you want. The price is excellent.

Caputo's Cheese Market in Melrose Park has a good selection of Ricotta You may want to call them.

http://www.wisconcorp.com/caputocheese.html

Hi,

This link promises to make a decent ricotta cheese in five minutes: http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/02/how- ... d-lab.html

Regards,

Marshall K wrote:Caputo's Cheese Market in Melrose Park has a good selection of Ricotta You may want to call them.

http://www.wisconcorp.com/caputocheese.html

I second Caputo's ricotta. Get the stuff that they make themselves, though. It's quite good.

Edit: I get this cheese from the Caputo's in Elmwood Park, literally a block west of the city. I think that it may be different from the cheese market in Melrose Park.

i havent tried it, but i believe graziano's on randolph always has a giant tub in their cooler. i'm betting they go for a good quality ricotta.

jp graziano, 901 w. randolph

Hi,

First ricotta experiment:

Heated one cup of milk in microwave.
Added 1-1/2 teaspoons vinegar, then stirred it in. Curds immediately formed.
Allowed to sit on the counter, stirring from time to time for about 15 minutes.

Drained through a very fine sieve, then let it sit about 5-10 minutes.

Measured ricotta: 3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons. This was not tightly packed.

If this is the correct ratio, for just over a cup of ricotta: 5 cups milk and 3 tablespoons plus 1-1/2 teaspoons vinegar.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

This link promises to make a decent ricotta cheese in five minutes: http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/02/how- ... d-lab.html

Regards,

I used the serious eats recipe above but I did not really read the directions before starting (was in a hurry) but I did use their ratio forgot to let it sit and poured it into the cheese cloth right away then let it sit for a hour then gathered up the corners of the cloth and tied& hanged the bag for another hour. put the "bag" in the fridge to drain for another hour or so...


I used 4 cups whole milk and one cup heavy cream and 5 Tbs vinegar & some salt
I'm going to strain it for 3 or 4 hours and then make ravioli for dinner tonight.




a few hours later...

I made some buttermilk* ricotta on Monday and had some on my crostini this morning. Yum! though, the recipe needs salt



*used buttermilk instead of critic acid, vinegar or lemon juice
1Qt whole milk
2 C half & half
1 c buttermilk
2 t salt (added post draining)