To make the best cannoli filling you have to start with fresh made cheese that you forking made yourself.

Fresh made cheese is only whole milk, heavy cream fresh squeezed lemons and a little kosher salt. You bring the milk, cream and salt to a slow boil and let it go a few minutes.

 

To make it curd you slowly add the fresh squeezed lemon juice till it curds as much as you want.

For cannoli filling I want it to curd more than ricotta because I want my cheese thicker so when I add sugar to sweeten the cheese it doesn’t get forking runny.

 

Now it’s time to drain the cheese.

So I get a paper towel lined colander.

Let it drain.

Now I have Cheese.

I make three flavors of filling.

Vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon.

The vanilla is just vanilla extract, sugar with a drop of anise.

The cinnamon is just cinnamon, a small amount of vanilla extract and sugar.

The chocolate is coco powder, vanilla extract, a drop of anise, a pinch of cinnamon and sugar.

I used one gallon of milk, 1 quart of cream, 2 fresh lemons and maybe 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt to make the cheese.

I saved somewhere between 1/4-1/3 of the cheese to make Cheese Gnocchi’s with the forking leftover.

On my search type in Ricotta Gnocchi for the recipe.