Remember when we featured homemade ricotta in our spring one-block feast? You’ll find the recipe in the current (February) issue of the magazine and if you click here.

We learned how to make it by getting a hands-on lesson at Bellwether Farms, an excellent cheesemaker in Sonoma. Their ricotta is amazing—one taste and it’s hard to go back to the substandard mass-market stuff.

Making ricotta normally takes at least 1 1/2 hours. It is slow, peaceful, and meditative. Here’s my attempt to make it in 5 minutes, for TV:

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And now, our cheese contest!
As I mentioned near the end of this clip, we’re sponsoring a cheese recipe contest with California’s Artisan Cheese Festival.

How it works: Send in a breakfast or dessert recipe using either ricotta or fromage blanc (the other cheese in the magazine story, which we learned to make from Cowgirl Creamery), or go crazy and use both!

The prize: Free tickets to the festival (March 26-29), in Petaluma. Plus, we’ll announce you and your recipe on stage, and we’ll publish your recipe on Sunset’s main website, in the food section.

To enter, click here.

Let’s see your cheese chops!