Easy Lemon Ricotta Pasta
This creamy Lemon Ricotta Pasta is ready in 15 minutes! A no-cook sauce made with ricotta, cottage cheese, lemon, and garlic is perfect for a quick and easy dinner. See notes for some add-in ideas! Serves 6 main dish servings, or 8+ side dish servings.
Servings Servings
Ingredients
- 1 lb pasta preferably something curly like trottole, campanelle or fusilli, but anything works!
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1 cup parmesan
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 clove garlic or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 lemon
Instructions
- Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil on the stove top. Add a generous pinch of salt and cook pasta according to package instructions.
- While pasta is cooking, place ricotta, cottage cheese, parmesan and salt in a food processor or high powered blender. Use garlic press or microplate to finely press garlic into sauce. It's going to get pureed, but we still want to make sure you don't get any large pieces of raw garlic in your bite.
- Add the zest from one lemon and then juice the lemon. If you love lemon you can add all the juice. If you don't want as strong of a lemon flavor, start with just a tablespoon or 2 and you can always add more if you like.
- Puree sauce until smooth and creamy.
- Important: Before you drain your pasta, save pasta water! I like to save at least 2 cups. You probably won't need that much but it helps to have enough. After saving some of the starchy pasta water, drain pasta completely and return to pot. Add cheesy sauce and stir over low heat to warm. Season with more salt if desired and then add pasta water as needed to thin your sauce. If serving immediately, you might not need too much. But keep your pasta water close by because it will thicken quickly and you'll likely want to add a little more right before serving.
- Top servings with additional grated parmesan cheese as desired.
Notes
This dish is really great on its own, but it's also a great base for some fun add-ins. Here's a few ideas, but let me know if you come up with anything that turns out delicious!
- Fresh chopped basil and crumbled Italian sausage
- Fresh arugula and sun dried tomatoes
- Crumbled bacon and peas
- Swirl in some pesto
- Chopped grilled chicken
Nutrition
Serving: 1.5cups, Calories: 451kcal, Carbohydrates: 61g, Protein: 25g, Fat: 11g, Saturated Fat: 7g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 34mg, Sodium: 653mg, Potassium: 287mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 4g, Vitamin A: 334IU, Vitamin C: 10mg, Calcium: 327mg, Iron: 1mg
Calories: 451kcal
Cost: $20
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