How to make creamy homemade ricotta.

I realize I’m a little late to the homemade ricotta game. Other food bloggers have already posted about this amazingly simple homemade cheese. And I’ve made it myself, quite often. But I’ve never been quite satisfied with the results.

Only during our recent food-focused travel to Tuscany did I realize why: I love the soft, tender, creamy Italian version of ricotta cheese. My previous experiments turned out cheese with large, dry curds and a firm texture. Delicious, but not the sensory experience I was after.

So I scouted around to find different recipes and techniques for making homemade ricotta. Some called for adding buttermilk or yogurt, which added a tang I didn’t love. Others called for stirring the milk mixture, which created larger, clumpier curds than I had in mind, or straining the ricotta for an hour or more, which created a firmer texture.

The proportion of ingredients for this…