Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine is a simple pasta dish that can be prepared in less than 20 minutes. Our recipe involves no cooking, apart from boiling the pasta, and it has all you need for a quick weekday meal. It’s delicious, creamy, rich and with lovely fresh ingredients.
Our family loves spending time in the kitchen cooking a full meal but who doesn’t appreciate a quick meal if you know it will taste so good? With a year and a half toddler running around the place, we do! Some of you have been asking for simpler and with fewer ingredient recipes as well, so here you go. Our Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine contains 7 ingredients from which you will probably have already everything at home except for the ricotta and asparagus.
Asparagus is one of our top vegetables to have on pasta. We grill the asparagus and add them to the dish at the very end, before serving. Such a versatile vegetable that can be used in many dishes, such as our Fresh Basil Pesto Pasta.
How to make Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine
- Make the sauce: This sauce doesn’t need cooking, which makes it really simple and quick to prepare. If you have kids, this can be a perfect recipe to involve them in the kitchen. Mix in medium-size bowl ricotta, lemon juice and lemon zest, extra virgin olive oil, vegetarian hard cheese, black pepper and salt. Combine all the ingredients and leave aside. As you can see in the picture, we use our Microplane grater/zester and our Lemon squeezer. Both gadgets are amazing and we use them pretty much daily!
- Boil the fettuccine pasta following the packet instructions. Before draining the pasta water, save some for later use. This is an important step as the pasta water will give the sauce the creaminess we are looking for.
- Grill the asparagus. We use asparagus for this recipe but if they are not in season or easy to find, you can substitute this ingredient for spinach. You will need to blanch the spinach before adding them into the dish. Other options are grilled zucchini or broccoli.
- The final step: Add the sauce to the pasta and a little bit of the saved pasta water. Keep adding until you have the desired creamy consistency. Last, add the grilled asparagus and your Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine will be ready to serve and enjoy.
Tips for making the best Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine
- Add salt into the pasta when cooking it. This will make your sauce taste even better. The pasta water will be used for the sauce, and when this has been salted previously it makes the dish have the perfect balance of saltiness and creaminess.
- Use good quality ricotta. It should always taste fresh, sweet and creamy.
- Choose a good quality pasta Fettuccine. Wether is fresh or dry, your pasta dishes will improve 100% with good quality pasta.
- Serve straight after cooking the dish. Otherwise, the pasta will soak the pasta water and the meal will lose the creaminess.
- Don’t be shy on the black pepper. This is not a Cacio e Peppe recipe, but the taste it’s similar and black pepper is one of the key ingredients.
Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine
Ingredients
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup vegetarian hard cheese shredded
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon black pepper grounded
- A bunch of fresh asparagus
- 180 g fettuccine
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Boil the fettuccine pasta following the packet instructions. Before draining the pasta water, save some for later use.
- Mix in a medium-size bowl the ricotta, lemon juice and lemon zest, vegetarian hard cheese, extra virgin olive oil, black pepper and salt. Combine all the ingredients and leave aside.
- Heat some oil in a skillet or grill pan. Cut off the woody ends of the asparagus and grill them for a couple of minutes. You will see that they are ready when you can easily pierce the middle with a fork.
- Add the sauce to the pasta and a little bit of the pasta water. Keep adding until you have the desired creamy consistency. Last, add the grilled asparagus and your Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine will be ready to serve and enjoy.
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