Making your own ricotta cheese is well-worth the effort.

Most people don’t know too much about the quality of the Ricotta cheese that they’re buying. In fact, if you’re like most people, you probably just grab the first container of Ricotta that you see in the refrigerated cheese aisle. However, there is a difference between good ricotta and the stuff you usually get at the grocery store.

With ricotta cheese, you want to look for the freshest possible cheese. In some markets, you’ll find hand-packed ricotta, and that’s the best option, if you can find it.

You might need to go to a specialty shop in order to find hand-packed whole-fat ricotta, but you’ll notice the difference in the final product immediately. The taste of a quality ricotta cheese is much milder, yet somehow deeper in flavor than cheaper pre-packaged ricotta.

If you really want to experiment, you can even find recipes to make your own ricotta cheese that will rival pretty much anything you can buy from a store. It’s isn’t that hard, either.

Marcela De Vivo works for Transparent Languages as a tutor and language guide. She is also afreelance writer that enjoys creating articles about travel, food, and education abroad.