What to do with ricotta cheese? I've got you covered with these 15 yummy ricotta recipes that you'll love. This scrumptious ricotta pasta is one of my readers' favorites, easy to whip up and totally delicious!
Total Time13 minutesmins
Course: pasta
Keyword: ricotta recipes
Servings: 3
Author: Katia
Ingredients
Pasta
8oz(220 grams)pasta
8oz(220-230 grams)baby spinach, washed
Ricotta Sauce
1 cup(250 grams)whole-milk ricotta
1 Tbspextra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1garlic clove, grated or pressed
⅓ cup(35 grams)grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
1unwaxed lemon, zest and juice
salt & pepper, to taste
3 lemon wedges, to serve (optional)
Instructions
Pasta
Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water. Cook until al dente following the package directions.
In the last minute of the pasta's cooking time, reserve some cooking water (about ½ cup) and add spinach to the pot. Stir and push the leaves down to submerge them in water.
After 1 minute, drain and return pasta and spinach to the same pot.
Add the ricotta sauce and some reserved pasta cooking water. Stir well to evenly coat the pasta in the sauce, add more cooking water if needed, you want everything nice and creamy.
Serve immediately with grated Parmesan cheese if you wish, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and lemon wedges if desired (for extra freshly squeezed juice, but I leave it optional)
Ricotta sauce
Combine ricotta, olive oil, parmesan cheese, garlic, lemon zest and juice in a bowl. Season with 1/4 tsp of salt and a good pinch of pepper.
Stir until well combined, taste and make sure you're happy with the seasoning.
Notes
Cooking water: add pasta water gradually, you might not need all of it. You don't want to water down the flavor, but only make spaghetti nice and moist. If you think the reserved water is not enough, you might add a few Tbsps of milk.Pasta: you can use any short, large or long pasta shapes that work well to capture the creamy ricotta. Mini pasta shapes like orzo or elbow macaroni don’t work well in the recipe.