Pasta with ricotta and walnuts is my last-minute dish. I love this combination because of the different qualities of ricotta and walnuts. The ricotta is creamy, light, delicate, and fresh, while the walnuts are crunchy, flavorful with that particular taste I love madly. Preparing this pasta is extremely simple and requires little time. I flavored the ricotta with garlic, which I find pairs perfectly with the other ingredients of this dish, but if you don’t like it, you can easily omit it. I used fresh ricotta, the kind you find in baskets and needs to be sieved and maybe softened with a little milk, but if we make it with packaged ricotta, which is very creamy and soft, this step can be omitted. If you also love ricotta, try the lasagna with ricotta and spinach!
Let’s get to work and prepare pasta with ricotta and walnuts together.
OTHER RECIPES WITH RICOTTA
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 11 oz pasta
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1 cup walnut kernels
- 1 clove garlic
- 4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt and pepper
- 1 tsp chopped parsley
- to taste lemon zest
Tools
- Pan
Preparation
Boil a generous amount of water. When it boils, add the pasta and salt. Meanwhile, work the ricotta with a fork or sieve it if you want it very creamy.
Separately, heat the oil with the garlic until fragrant. When it sizzles, add the chopped or coarsely broken walnut kernels. I advise against using a food processor as it would crush them too much. Add the ricotta and make everything as creamy as possible by adding a bit of the pasta cooking water. Salt and pepper to taste.
Drain the pasta well al dente, reserving some more cooking water. Toss the pasta with the ricotta cream (which you can enrich with a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan if desired), and sauté for a couple of minutes, adding more cooking water when needed. Add the parsley only off the heat and serve.
Storage
If you store this pasta, it will tend to dry out too much.
