Ricotta salata is salted, pressed and dried ricotta. It’s really tasty, a bit like feta, but it can be tricky to find in grocery stores, so I like to make it myself. I started thinking of this recipe as “cheater's” ricotta salata because I most often use store-bought ricotta when I make it-it’s a really simple process, all you need is ricotta, salt and time.

I have seen a lot of recipes titled "Cheater's (whatever)" or "Lazy (insert food here)". These things seem to often involve opening a box of cake mix, a packet of pudding, a roll of premade pastry, something from a tin... some kind of store bought shortcut.

There seem to be different levels of what counts as cheating. Is it cheating if you use store bought pastry? If you used a pack of cake mix? If you didn't grow and mill your own flour? There is a growing fixation with making food harder to make. I suspect this is in response to increasing convenience; by making food really hard work and fetishizing the increasing levels of DIY production we can be rebels against mass production.

In reality, it is a huge luxury to be able to care about things like making your own pasta, making your own puff pastry, making your own cheese. That's why I don't really like the idea that some ways of preparing food are "cheating" - it elevates this luxury of preparing from-scratch, time consuming recipes to a higher moral plane.

I love to cook and to prepare food from scratch, because I find it enjoyable and interesting, not because it carries some inherent goodness. I think it would be great if we could try to stop talking about food like it’s “cheating” or that some food is “real” or “fake” or "clean".

cheater's ricotta salata:

one tub ricotta, homemade or store bought, of the highest quality you can find
large supply of fine, flaky salt, I like Diamond Crystal salt

In a small bowl, mix 2 tsp salt through the ricotta.

Line a fine mesh sieve with cheesecloth at least two layers thick and place this over a medium sized bowl. Generously sprinkle salt onto the cheesecloth and spoon the ricotta into the lined sieve. Add another sprinkle of salt on top of the cheese. Fold the edges of the cloth over the cheese and place the sieve-in-bowl setup into the fridge.

The salt will draw water out of the ricotta. This process will take several days. Each day, check for liquid in the bowl and discard it. As you check on your cheese, you can sprinkle a small amount of more salt on to the cheese and under it (you can bring the corners of the cheesecloth up and squeeze to form a ball of cheese, peeling the cloth away gently to get under it to add salt).

If you bought your ricotta it a plastic tub, hang onto it. Puncture it with a pair of very sharp kitchen shears all over the bottom and sides. We will use that later. If you don't have a tub, you can use a small plastic container you don't mind puncturing or you can use a ricotta mold like this one or you can carry on using the sieve as your mold if you don't mind being without it in the kitchen for a while.

When the cheese no longer weeps moisture visibly; you can transfer it to your prepared mold/ or holey tub. Gently remove it from the cheesecloth, place the cheesecloth into the mold, and generously cover the cloth with salt. Place the cheese onto the salted cloth and salt the top of the cheese. Cover it with the cheesecloth edges. Fill a mason jar with water and place this on top of the cheese. This weight will help to press water out the cheese further and aid the action of the salt.

Every day or two, look at the cheese, prod it to test for firmness, salt the edges and top. Once or twice a week, take the cheese in the cloth out of the tub, flip it over so the bottom is on top, salt all over and return to the tub with the weight on top.

This process will take between a couple of weeks and a couple of months. The amount and type of salt, the moisture content of the cheese and the humidity will affect the process.

The cheese is finished when it is very firm, similar to the texture of feta, though slightly drier. When this texture is achieved, rinse the salt off and dry the cheese off on a paper towel or clean tea towel. The cheese will be very salty at this stage; eating a slice will perhaps taste unappetizingly salty. I keep it this way and shred the cheese with a box grater or slice it extremely thin. The small size reduces the perceived saltiness. Alternately, if you want a milder cheese, you can soak the ricotta salata in water until it reaches the desired flavour, then dry again on paper towels.

-large supply of fine, flaky salt, I like Diamond Crystal salt

In a small bowl, mix 2 tsp salt through the ricotta, taking care to distribute evenly.

Line a fine mesh sieve with cheesecloth, at least two layers thick and place this over a medium sized bowl. Generously sprinkle salt onto the cheesecloth and spoon the ricotta into the lined sieve. Add another sprinkle of salt on top of the cheese. Fold the edges of the cloth over the cheese and place the sieve-in-bowl setup into the fridge.

This process will take between a couple of weeks and a couple of months. The amount and type of salt, the moisture content of the cheese and the humidity will affect the process.

Crumble it over salads, pasta or thinly slice onto sandwiches. Take care when season foods with salt-this cheese is plenty salty!