I'm pleased to participate for the first time at the challenges of Recipes to Rival (R2R)

February host is Lauren from I'll Eat You. For this challenge, she wants us to make the ricotta and blog about the process, and then use the ricotta in a recipe of our choice. As she's Italian she gave some ideas as Lasagna, Ravioli or even cheesecake... but I used it to cook a simple Cheese Omelette and a traditional Catalan dessert called Mel i Mató (Honey and Ricotta). Ricotta in Spanish is called Requesón, and in Catalan we call it Mató.

For Fresh Ricotta you need:
- 1 gallon milk (you can use 1 percent on up, remember that the more fat in the milk, the more cheese it will yeild.) (4 liters)
- 1 quart buttermilk (1 liter)
- cheesecloth (a good, tightly woven one, not the kind you buy at the supermarket) If you don't have one of these, you can get by with a slotted spoon, but you may lose some of the cheese, or a strainer.
-a thermometer

Place buttermilk and milk in a pot, heat on med-low heat until it reaches 185 degrees. It will begin to separate into curds and whey.
Be sure to stir occasionally to make sure no curds stick to the bottom and burn. You will see that as the temperature approaches 185ºF (85ºC), the whey becomes clearer as the curds coagulate more.
Pour the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander. Tie the ends of the cheesecloth together and hang for 10-15 minutes.
Remove from cheesecloth and place in an airtight container.

My version of Ricotta is a little different from Lauren's. I've got a light intolerance to lactose, so fat milk is not the best for me. That's why I used semi-skimmed lactose-free and skimmed lactose-free milk. There're two brands in Spain for lactose-free milk: Hacendado and Kaiku.

- 1 litre of semi-skimmed lactose-free milk
- 1/2 litre skimmed lactose-free milk
- the juice of 1 lemon I don't have a thermometer (that's a present I want somebody to give me...), so I did at a guess, as soon milk started to bubble I removed from heat.

The rest of the steps are the same as in Lauren's recipe. I got 1 cup of ricotta.

The second part of the challenge consisted in cooking with home-made Ricotta. As said above, I chose a simple but yummy Cheese Omelette, served with bread with tomato sandwich, made at Catalan style. And Mel i Mató (Honey and Ricotta) as dessert.

For the Cheese Omelette (serves 1):
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup of ricotta
- ¼ cup of emmental or mozzarella
- salt
- olive oil (2 teaspoon) (you can use butter instead)

Beat eggs in small bowl with a fork until yolks and whites are well mixed. Add the cheese and beat again to mix well with the eggs.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat until oil is hot but not steaming.
Add the cheese and eggs mix. When there is no liquid egg left on the surface of the omelette, turn it over to cook the other side. To do this, place a flat lid or plate over the pan, carefully invert both so that the omelette is on the lid or plate.
Put the pan back on the heat and use the palette knife to gently ease the omelette back in. Give it a few minutes more, then turn the heat off. It should then be cooked through but still moist in the centre. Serve hot or cold in a baguette spread with tomato and olive oil.

For the Mel i Mató (serves 1)
- ½ cup of ricotta
- 2 tablespoons of honey

Just pour the honey over the ricotta and serve.