Creamy Pasta With Ricotta and Herbs

Delicious! I did add the lemon zest and toasted pinenuts I had leftover. Served with seared scallops on the side. Thanks for a great recipe!

I grew up in a Sicilian working class family and this dish was a frequent meal. Try it with Spinach or Brocolli Rabe.

That really sounds wonderful! Toasted shaved almonds ought to work instead of pine nuts, I'd guess, if one had the former in the pantry and not the latter. But your suggestion of pine nuts seems a real winner! I'm tempted to throw 15-20 peeled/deveined shrimp into the pasta pot as it nears completion. I've saved the recipe (and your suggestions) into my Recipes folder for future reference.

Perfect way to use up all the herbs that collect in the fridge. We re-heated leftovers with a glug of half-half to make it extra creamy.

Just made this recipe . Simple good . Add lemon zest to this for acid and makes all the ingredients shine bright !

Being more ambitious, you can make ricotta at home. Various recipes use lemon juice, vinegar or buttermilk. The buttermilk version is the best, very like the ricotta I had in Italy. Super delicious. I will try this recipe next time I make Ricotta.

In Sicily, the ricotta is probably sheep's milk ricotta which is all but impossible to find in this country. The end result would be different: cow's milk ricotta is less creamy and has a quite different taste. As stated in the intro, so many very simple Italian recipes demand perfect, pristine ingredients at their peak of ripeness or freshness. Once you start making substitutions, all bets are off.

Ricotta is really easy to make, and much better that most of the commercial varieties, which in the last few years have started adding gelatin for no clear reason, changing the consistency and taste in a negative way, in my opinion.

At four minutes left in the pasta cooking time, I discovered that my "I really need to use it up" ricotta had, in fact, gone bad. Clearly need to check that earlier. I can confirm that a last minute sub of cream cheese worked out, with a few TBS of heavy cream for good measure. Looking forward to trying this again with ricotta!

The water was probably too hot. Next time let the pasta water cool down a little or add it gradually. This will be hard to fix because I assume you've already added the pasta to the sauce, but if not, try whisking a small amount of sauce into some room temp water in a separate bowl, whisk till smooth, add more sauce, whisk, etc. till your sauce is re-emulsified, then add the pasta.

I lower heat to medium, put olive oil in first, then ricotta, which I whisk while pouring the water. I often put crushed garlic in the oil for a minute or two before ricotta, but I add salt, pepper & herbs after everything is blended. If the sauce seems too thick, I add a little 1/2 & 1/2. Then I put it on low & add the pasta, stirring till the pasta is warmed. If you get everything ready for the sauce while the water is coming to a boil, it comes together quickly, before the pasta cools much.

This was good, but a little heavy. My twenty something crowd gobbled it up. I added some sliced broccoli and asparagus, putting it in when I was mixing it together. I will try something like this again, but will reduce the oil and cheese a bit, using the pasta water to get the consistency right.

Wonderful flavor but it makes a LOT! We are only two and it was far more than 4 servings. Also be sure to use high quality parmesan that you fresh grate yourself -- I used 'pre-grated' which made it a bit grainy. Lovely overall with fresh mint and basil.

I really loved this. It was easy to make. I used dill, basil, and parsley from the garden. I will definitely make it again, maybe with some other combo of herbs. Thank you MC!

Really wonderful and so easy! I ended up using almost 3 cups of herbs (parsley, basil and oregano) and added a bit more pepper as well as the suggested lemon zest. This will be a regular in our Meatless Monday rotation. Big hit with our 14 year old too, my biggest food critic.