Pasta with ricotta cheese and lemon olive oil

Here is the recipe with the most impressive effort-to-deliciousness ratio I've had in quite a while. It does involve a little bit of strategic shopping, but not much, and nice lemon olive oil is very worthwhile and in the company of a little salt and pepper will make any vegetable taste luxurious, so go on and buy it already.

If you are in the happy position of not needing to worry about blood sugar and things like that, you could eat a great big pile of this pasta and nothing else for supper, but it's also excellent in small quantities alongside something else. It would be outrageously good as an accompaniment to an artichoke and was just dandy with the broccoli I posted about last night.

LEMON AND RICOTTA PASTA

Cook some pasta. Ziti would be nice, or pappardelle, or whatever, really. We used these guys, which were superb. Drain it and reserve a tiny bit of the starchy cooking water. Put both back in the pot and add a healthy dollop of ricotta cheese and an unhealthy glug-glug of lemon olive oil. Add some lemon zest, too, if you feel like it, and salt if it needs it. Heat through briefly, grate some pepper over it, and serve. Fin.

Comments

[nancy]

this was good, and it's hard to imagine any recipe more simple. a new use for my treasured lemon olive oil!

other pantry staples that i treasure are vinegars from chateau morrisette winery. their spicy pecan, blood orange, and late harvest riesling vinegars are scrumptious. wash & dry some baby spinach, sprinkle lightly with blood orange vinegar, and microwave for ooh, 30 seconds or so, and you have a treat. you can order them at
http://www.thedogs.com/shopping/start.php

(i have no connection with the winery -- i just love
their vinegars.)

[Meredith]

I make something like this but I add fresh fava beans. Instead of the lemon olive oil, I use lemon zest and juice. The favas considerably up the people power factor though, but they're worth it.

[redfox]

Spicy pecan vinegar sounds insanely good! And while fava beans do indeed up the labor requirements, it sounds delicious. And it's nice to have uses for favas that can accommodate a large or small amount depending on what you can get (or stand to shell).