Pasta with Ricotta

This is basic recipe that you can jazz up or change at will. You can use any variety of herbs, use almonds or walnuts instead of pine nuts, add pesto or another type of puree to the ricotta, add peas or chopped cooked vegetables (broccoli or green beans come to mind), etc. Tonight I used parsley, scallions, pine nuts and added some leftover roasted red pepper dip.

This recipe makes 4 or 5 servings.

Pasta with Ricotta

• 1 pound dried pasta (curlier, open pastas are better for this: farfalle, malfade, fusilli, gemelli)


• 1 15 oz. container of ricotta (I use part skim, but if I saw a good quality fresh whole milk ricotta, I'd use that instead!)


• 1/3-1/2 cup grated parmigiano reggiano and/or romano cheese


• handful chopped herbs


• handful toasted pine nuts


• salt and pepper to taste

Boil the pasta in salted water.

While the pasta is cooking, mix the rest of the ingredients together in a small bowl.

When the pasta is done, before you drain it, take a coffee cup or other heatproof cup and reserve about a cup of water. Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot and add the ricotta mixture and about a half cup of the water. Put the pot back over medium heat and stir until a sauce is formed. You may need to add a little more pasta water to loosen things up. The sauce won't be super creamy (not like an alfredo), it will always be a little more rustic than that.