Last week I found myself with extra milk on hand. Apparently, I ordered 6 gallons not our usual 4 gallons from the co-op. Gabriel has been wanting me to make spinach lasagna and I’ve been wanting to try my hand at homemade ricotta cheese for a while.
Perfect opportunity.
So we pulled out Homemade Pantry and went to work.
Here’s the ricotta draining all the whey out. I used the whey in place of milk in the waffles the next morning so nothing went to waste.
I think I left it hanging a little too long. The curds were really clumped together but we loosened them with a fork until they were really small.
I had to take Phoebe to dance and run a few errands so Gabriel made the lasagna. I’m so thankful that all of my older children can cook and are willing to fill in for me when needed. It helps that they like to eat good food.
He used our Spinach Lasagna Recipe and substituted Swiss chard from the garden. This makes a really big lasagna so you might want to half it if you have a smaller family. In addition to using greens like chard, spinach and kale, we’ve also used grated carrot and summer squash in this recipe.
Vegetable Lasagna
Ingredients
- 28 oz sauce
- 28 oz petite diced tomatoes
- 3 cups water
- 30 oz Ricotta
- 4 eggs
- 16 oz grated mozzarella
- 1 cup Parmesan
- ½ tsp. black pepper
- 16 oz lasagna noodles
- 8-10 oz spinach (torn)
Instructions
To make sauce: mix sauce, tomatoes and water in medium bowl.
To make filling: mix ricotta, eggs, 2 cups mozzarella, Parmesan and black pepper.
Tear or chop greens (or other vegetables)
Using a deep 9X13 pan or roaster oven, put a thin layer of sauce on bottom of pan.
Cover pan with a layer of noodles (about 1/3 of the noodles), top with ½ of filling mixer, ½ of spinach and ½ of sauce.
Cover with noodles (about 1/3 of noodles), top with the rest of filler and spinach.
Cover with last of noodles, top with rest of sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella.
Bake at 350 for about 1 ½ hours – until noodles are soft.
Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
Substitute any vegetables that are in season and sound good - kale, chard, spinach, grated carrot, summer squash, etc.
Rachel E.
Tuesday 29th of January 2013
I would love to hear all the steps for your ricotta cheese.
SchneiderPeeps
Wednesday 30th of January 2013
I found a recipe on Alana's blog (she wrote Homemade Pantry) for Ricotta. The only difference is that the recipe in the book uses 1/2 gallon of milk and 1/2 cup lemon juice instead of the milk and lemon juice measurements on her blog. Also I didn't use heavy cream. Here's the link http://www.eatingfromthegroundup.com/2009/12/ricotta-again/