Ricotta, lemon and spinach pasta
Guilty as charged, Your Honour: there are a lot of ‘or to tastes’ going on here. While you might see these as a recipe-writing cop out, we see them as giving you the freedom to lavish lemon, parmesan, nutmeg, basil and whatnot on your pasta as you jolly well see fit. You might like things tarter, puckery-er, cheesier, or nutmeg-ier than us so please. Be our guest and add as much – or as little – of these as appeals to you.
We’ve written before about the tyranny of a recipe; we reckon it’s good to try and get a ‘feel’ for a style of a dish or a set of complimentary flavours so you can free-wheel with confidence from time to time. Honestly, we’ve seen recipes that measure fresh herbs to the nearest gram which in our minds is a total vibe killer. (And we bet the average Nonna doesn’t fire up digital scales to check her basil usage. She’d use intuition, and trust her taste buds as she went). In a dish like this, aside from not cooking too much, or too little, pasta for the amounts of everything else (you want that pasta coated but not drowned), you can kind of do what you like. Who are we to tell you how much basil you should add? And maybe you’ve got oregano instead and to that we say ‘great’. 50g more or less spinach isn’t the end of the world and neither is leaving it out if you don’t have any on hand. Got mint in your garden or capers in the pantry? Great. Turf those in too. We’re big believers in tasting as we go, especially with a dish like this which in all honesty is pretty loose. As long as you stick to the overall theme (‘Italian’, ‘cheesy’, ‘lemony’, ‘fresh-leafy-herby’), you can’t go far wrong. Use a ricotta that’s a little creamy; the sort that you can buy fresh is firmer and while we generally prefer this, a wetter one is best here.
SERVES 4
350g dried egg fettuccine
80ml (⅓ cup) extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
80ml (⅓ cup) lemon juice, or to taste
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest, or to taste
200g baby spinach or rocket leaves, or a mixture
360g ricotta
large pinch freshly grated nutmeg, or to taste
100g (1 cup) finely grated parmesan, or to taste
large handful basil leaves
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil for the pasta. Cook for 5 minutes, or according to packet directions until al dente.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large, deep-sided fry pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, then cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until fragrant but not coloured. Add about 100ml of the boiling pasta cooking water with the lemon juice and lemon zest, then bring to a simmer. When the pasta is ready, use tongs to transfer it to the pan, reserving the cooking water. Add the spinach and ricotta to the pan and toss to mix well, using tongs to break up the ricotta and adding more pasta cooking water to make a creamy sauce and help wilt the spinach. Add the nutmeg and season to taste with salt and pepper, then toss in about half the parmesan and the basil. Divide among warmed bowls or plates, scatter over the remaining parmesan, then serve.
