Baked Pasta with Spinach, Ricotta, and Prosciutto, Gluten Free

I found a recipe on Martha Stewart's website that calls for ricotta so that I could use my homemade ricotta in something rather than the standard lasagna.  I tweaked it a little, so here's my version of the recipe:

1 pound Tinkyada elbow macaroni (or other gluten free pasta)

6 ounces sliced prosciutto

20 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess moisture

2 cups raw goat milk

2 cups homemade ricotta cheese

2 garlic cloves, minced

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste*

1/2 cup grated peccorino romano

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cook pasta a few minutes less than package instructions suggest.  Cut prosciutto into thin strips.

In a casserole dish (about 9 x 13 inch), toss pasta with spinach, half of the prosciutto, milk, ricotta, and garlic.  Season with salt and pepper.  Top with remaining prosciutto and peccorino.  Bake until golden and bubbly, 30-40 minutes.

* I used 1 tsp. of salt, but it was a little on the bland side.  The next time I make it, I'll use 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons.  Other than needing more salt, this recipe was quite good.  I'll definitely make it again.

Making Chèvre

Today was my last attempt with making cheese with my fresh goat's milk.  I may experiment later in the year with frozen milk.  I've read lots of advice from different internet sites on using frozen milk.  They directly conflict each other on several points.  "Don't use frozen milk, it won't work.  Frozen milk works just fine for cheese making.  You can make cheese with frozen milk if you thaw it slowly. You can make cheese with frozen milk if you thaw it quickly. etc."  My book says to only use milk less than 48 hours old.  So, who knows?

Anyway, I chose chèvre for today's cheese. It is a french-style soft cheese.

Once again, I started out with fresh whole milk in the vat, five quarts this time, and warmed it to 80 degrees.  I sprinkled DVI Chèvre Culture over the warmed milk and stirred.  Then I added diluted rennet and stirred again.  Then, as per the instructions, I put the lid on and left it undisturbed for eight hours.

It was pretty quick and simple.

This is what it looked like after eight hours.  I didn't dare even lift the lid or jostle it during that time period for fear of messing something up.  So, I was excited to see if it had done anything, and it had!  I was happy to see that it was a large solid mass.  I tilted the pan for the picture to show how it pulls away from the edge en masse.  There was a film of whey over the top.

Then I poured it into a cheesecloth lined colander to let it drain.  After a large portion of whey had drained out...

I pulled up the edges of the cheesecloth and tied them so that I could hang it to drain more.  My banana hanger worked pretty good for this part.  I had to empty the blue bowl several times.

After about six hours of draining, the cheese had taken on the contours of the cheesecloth.  It looked sort of like a pumpkin.  I divided it into containers and put it in the refrigerator.  I'll do an internet search for a good recipe to season it.

I was very happy with how it turned out.  Hopefully, it will taste as good as it looks.

Cajeta

I told people at the beginning of 2013 that it was my goal to save enough goat milk to last us through until the next milking season.  But, frankly, I got tired of the milking routine and put an end to it earlier than I had planned.  So, I thought I wasn't going to achieve my goal.  But, with just Tom and I using the milk, it turns out that I did reach that goal.

Well, it's not milking season yet, but it will be pretty soon and I still have quite a bit of milk left in the freezer.  I need to empty the freezer out to make room for the milk that my three milkers will produce this season, so I decided to make some cajeta.

Tom and I first read about this in an article about some Texans with a Nubian goat dairy farm.  It is a Mexican sweet sauce, like caramel or dolce de leche (or so I'd read) and can be used to top all kinds of desserts, or just to eat with a spoon.  It can be made with cow's milk, but I'm not sure why anyone would bother since cajeta is a goat milk thing.

It has to cook several hours and has to be watched and stirred diligently, so I waited until I was going to have a full afternoon to devote to it.  In one article I read, the dairy that made it, presumably in large quantities, let theirs cook for about eight hours.

But, I wanted to start small, so I started with one quart of milk and it took me three hours from start to finish.  I read several recipes and combined their collective knowledge in hopes of keeping it as simple as possible and hoping for a good outcome.  It was surprisingly easy.  The hardest thing about it was not being tempted to run off and do other things, risking burning the sauce.

The ingredients were:

1 quart goat milk

1 cup brown sugar (you can use white for a lighter sauce)

2 tsp. vanilla extract (not imitation)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda dissolved in one Tbs. water (or, one recipe suggested cow's milk instead of water.  I'm not sure why)

Some recipes called for one cinnamon stick and some for rum, which is probably delicious and I'll likely try one of those the next time.

Bring all ingredients except for dissolved baking soda to a boil.  Some recipes said to put all ingredients together in the beginning.

Use a wooden spoon to stir...something about reactions to metal, blah, blah, blah.  Just do it even if you don't understand why.

  I chose to add the baking soda after the sauce came to a boil.

Take the sauce off the heat and add the baking soda/water and stir like crazy because it really foams up and may bubble over.

After that, just put it back on the stove and simmer over low heat until it's done.  The description of doneness was that it will thickly coat the back of a spoon and that while stirring, the spoon will leave a delayed trail and you'll be able to see the bottom of the pan for a second or two.  If you like to use a candy thermometer, it's supposed to reach 220.

One quart of milk made exactly one pint jar of cajeta (with a little left in the pan for licking).  And, they were right...it is delicious!  I'm trying to think of things to put it on without getting too fat.

If you want to make this, see to it that you have plenty of things to do in the kitchen so that you won't be tempted to leave for a few minutes.  Although, I was able to dash back and forth putting clothes in the washer/dryer, for the most part, I stayed in the kitchen and stirred.  I was able to shred a block of peccorino with my new processor, clean the kitchen, surf the web, and cook dinner.  I'd probably have a cleaner kitchen if I made this stuff regularly.