How real ricotta cheese is made in Italy

• Ricotta comes from the liquid whey when the milk is curdled, which bigger dairies often consider just a leftover product.

• But for smaller, local dairies here in Italy, it is a great opportunity to optimize their resources and get something great out of them.

• We visited a dairy in the town of Locorotondo, Italy, where cheesemaker Giovanni Montanaro transformed liquid whey into ricotta.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Claudia Romeo: We're in Locorotondo, Italy, and today we're going to see how ricotta is made. Ricotta is a very versatile cheese, we all know it, that can be eaten in very different ways. And, technically speaking, it's not even really a cheese, because it comes from liquid whey when the milk is curdled. So, today we're going to visit a small dairy here in the countryside to find out more about how it's made. Let's go.

Claudia: Ricotta is part of a family of fresh cheeses that are normally eaten the same day. Fresh dairy products are very popular in southern Italy, where each region will make its own version of ricotta depending on the milk used and its flavor profiles. Puglia, the region we're in today, favors a soft, delicate ricotta made with liquid whey derived from cow's milk. Bigger dairies that make cheese often consider liquid whey just a leftover product and use it to feed livestock or even discard it. But for smaller, local dairies here in Italy, it is a great opportunity to optimize their resources and get something great out of them. Just like its sisters, mozzarella and burrata, ricotta is a game of time and chemistry.

Giovanni Montanaro: Ricotta is not a cheese nor a dairy product. It's a byproduct, meaning that first you process the milk, then you obtain the whey and the ricotta. You get it from leftovers, so it is very important for the economy of a company.

Claudia: So, let's say that, to make ricotta - well, you could never make ricotta only, right? It would be a waste of cheese curds for a dairy.

Giovanni: Yes. Let's say that ricotta is a fundamental product for the business.

Claudia: Today, Giovanni is going to show us how he makes ricotta from 100 liters of milk. Out of these 100 liters, only 10 will turn into curds that will then make cheese. But cheese is not the star of the show for us today. In reality, as much as 90% of what's in here is liquid whey, and that's all going to be turning into ricotta.

Giovanni: Today we're going to make a soft, very moist caciotta. It tends to absorb a lot of humidity, so we'll obtain around 10% to 11%.

Claudia: OK.

Giovanni: So, a byproduct that we'll use for ricotta.

We heated the milk to 40 degrees [Celsius], so raw milk, heated up, milked this morning. We're just going to add rennet, nothing else.

Claudia: This is the rennet, right?

Giovanni: Yes, this is animal rennet, from veal.

Claudia: So, by adding this rennet, you -

Giovanni: The milk will go from the liquid phase to the solid phase.

Claudia: OK. And how long would it take?

Giovanni: This is what rennet is for. We'll wait about 10, 15 minutes.

Claudia: Ah, OK. So it's very fast.

Giovanni: It's a pretty quick step, yes.

Claudia: Is the timing specific?

Giovanni: The timing varies based on the type of cheese, the type of rennet, and the dosage as well. Once the milk has curdled, meaning it has set, it has become gelatinous, not solid.

Claudia: Yes, yes.

Giovanni: We're going to break the curd with the classic tool. It's called spino. We're going to separate the solid part, which will stay, from the liquid part, which will be the whey. The type of cheese depends on the size of the grain that we'll leave.

Claudia: And the type of tool used to cut through?

Giovanni: The type of tool, yes. We could use this one, and there are others for other types of cheeses. But this is the most popular. You can make the majority of cheeses with this one.

Claudia: Yes, I've seen this one. Even in bigger sizes.

Giovanni: Much bigger.

Claudia: Yes.

Giovanni: As soon as it starts to break, the curd stays soft, so you have to be delicate. You don't have to break it too much. You give it its time, and you wait for it to get to the consistency you want. So you always give each cheese its time.

Claudia: What size does the curd have?

Giovanni: Since we're going to make a soft cheese, it'd be like a nut.

Claudia: Ah, this size?

Giovanni: This size. But we always have to wait for it to harden in order not to lose too much whey. So, the smaller it is, the more whey it loses.

Claudia: OK, yes.

Giovanni: The drier the cheese will be at the end.

Claudia: All right. How long are you going to break it for?

Giovanni: Well, time always depends…

Claudia: On the size?

Giovanni: More than the size; it's the hardness of the grain. Let's say that milk plays a role too. The higher the proteins in the milk are, the harder it would be and the more different the movement.

Claudia: When the curds have reached the desired texture and size, Giovanni will extract them and place them into molds, which will go on to age and become cheese. Finally free from its curdled twin, the liquid whey is ready to be turned into ricotta.

Giovanni: Once obtained, we just add a bit of salt. It's a solution of water and salt. We'll heat it to 60 degrees to add some milk, so a small part of milk is there anyway.

Claudia: Yes.

Giovanni: And we will heat it up to 85 degrees to allow the ricotta to surface.

Claudia: So, basically, ricotta will be…what will it be? The curd of the milk you're about to add? How do you get this creamy ricotta to form?

Giovanni: Ricotta is a more delicate step. It's basically the surfacing of fat alloying with the liquid whey.

Claudia: OK.

Giovanni: The liquid whey that is not influenced by rennet in the cheese, it's recovered for ricotta.

Claudia: Here. OK.

Giovanni: So it's always milk protein alloying with the fat of the milk that we're going to add. At a temperature of 85 degrees, with a small quantity of acid, with a small quantity of acid, This tends to make it surface, this union between proteins and fats.

Claudia: Ah, all right. For the ricotta.

Giovanni: It will rise to the surface. It will surface.

Claudia: "Surface." That's the specific term.

Giovanni: It's the right term.

Claudia: Giovanni then starts heating up the whey to add milk and ferments to it. If we had to judge a step by how loud it is, I'd say this is definitely a crucial one. [machine whirring] Thankfully for our ears, it was also a pretty quick one.

Claudia: The thing here on the surface, is it cream?

Giovanni: It's just foam.

Claudia: OK.

Giovanni: It's like cappuccino foam, for instance.

Claudia: Yes, yes. But actually this machine makes exactly the same noise as a coffee machine. It's like stepping in a café, basically.

Giovanni: I wish.

Claudia: How long does it take to reach the temperature, 85 degrees?

Giovanni: It's already there.

Claudia: Ah, it's already there. So it's very quick.

Claudia: While Giovanni carefully removes all the excess foam, we can see it slowly starting to surface -- the ricotta we came for today.

Giovanni: Once it surfaces, the only thing you can do is collect it.

Claudia: OK. And you collect it like this?

Giovanni: I try to break as little as possible, in order for it to hold as much humidity as possible.

Claudia: So the final result will be nice and soft. In any case, it has to be quite a quick movement, because I see that a bit of the whey is dropping anyway. I mean, you can't hold it all.

Giovanni: It will lose a bit of whey. It's normal. But the more the curd that has formed breaks, the more whey it will lose. But ricotta will start to go down anyway after a bit. Once it goes down, you can't collect it anymore. In this job, there are a lot of things where you have to seize the right moment. Going from cheese, acidifying it, the stretching of mozzarella. A lot of things can be done in only a specific moment. Once that moment is gone, they're no longer recoverable.

Claudia: You've always been a cheesemaker.

Giovanni: Yes, I try to study more, but always in the same industry. I never moved away.

Claudia: How did you learn?

Giovanni: It started as a summer job, I started working a bit. Then passion came, so I never moved away. Let's say, tradition helps you.