Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine

Delicious, creamy, rich and made with lovely fresh ingredients our Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine is a simple pasta dish that can be prepared in less than 20 minutes.

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 two-year-old 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 in our Fresh Basil Pesto Pasta.

How to make Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine

Ingredients

Fettuccine Pasta. Choose a good quality pasta Fettuccine. Whether is fresh or dry, your pasta dishes will improve 100% with good quality pasta.

Ricotta. Use good quality ricotta. It should always taste fresh, sweet and creamy. To make this dish Vegan, go have a look at this Whipped Almond Ricotta from Minimalist Baker.

Lemon. As we are gonna be using the zest and juice of the lemon, we highly recommend you to get an organic lemon for this recipe.

Fresh Asparagus. If seasonal, get fresh asparagus to finish this dish. If this ingredients is not in season, you can as well add any other green veggie of your choice!

Vegetarian Hard Cheese. For this recipe, we use a hard cheese similar to Parmesan but vegetarian. Parmesan contains rennet which makes it non-vegetarian. You can find good substitutes in big supermarkets without rennet.

Black pepper. Don't be shy on the black pepper. This is not a Cacio e Peppe, but the taste it's similar and black pepper is one of the key ingredients

Olive oil. We recommend using Extra Virgin Olive Oil. As the sauce is not going to be cooked, this is the best oil to use.

Method

1. 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 them 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!
2. 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.
3. 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 to the dish. Other options are grilled zucchini or broccoli.
4. 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 this recipe

• 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.
• Serve straight after cooking the dish. Otherwise, the pasta will soak the pasta water and the meal will lose the creaminess.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine

A rich, creamy, delicious and quick weekday Italian meal

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time15 mins

Total Time20 mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: Lemon Ricotta Fettuccine Pasta

Servings: 2 people

Ingredients

• 1 cup ricotta
• ¼ 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, juice and zest from the lemon, the shredded 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.