Homemade Ricotta

This is a pictureless post, but that's okay - just use your imagination! :)

Williams-Sonoma has these free technique classes several times a month - you get to sample tasty treats and you get a 10% discount (sadly sale stuff and the good stuff, aka vitamixes and Shun knives, is excluded) on class day. A few weeks ago, there was a class on homemade holiday gifts, and one of the items discussed was homemade cheese! Williams-Sonoma does sell the cheesemaking kits, but if you do any amount of cooking, you probably already have the ingredients at home for a fraction of the price.

Ingredients
-1 qt milk (I used whole, but goat, 2% or 1% should also work - just make sure there's some fat in it)
-1 tsp salt (more or less to taste)
-1/4c lemon juice (or plain white vinegar)
-cheesecloth

Instructions
-Line a sieve with the cheesecloth (my brilliant suggestion is to binder clip the cloth in place so that when you pour the curds in, the cloth stays put) and set the sieve over a large bowl.
-Place milk and salt in a non-reactive pot (stainless steel or Le Creuset). 
-Bring to a gentle boil (it will look like the top of a latte) over medium heat. This will take some time, so don't leave the stove (that's when milk boils over) and keep stirring to prevent scorching.
-After the milk has come to a boil, turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Curds should form immediately. Pour into your prepared cheesecloth/sieve/bowl contraption and drain out the whey (don't throw this out - it's super nutritious and you can use it in smoothies, over cereal, pancakes, etc). 
-Refrigerate the curds in the refrigerator until serving time. This will result in a relatively firm product, so you may need to thin it out with some liquid (like that whey you saved).  This is just a very wonderful lemony ricotta.

If you're wondering how much ricotta this made, there was enough for a 13x9 pan of lasagna!