Photos by House of Stills
I grew up on ricotta. Literally any recipe you can imagine that uses ricotta, I have probably tried. As most of you know, I grew up in a cheese-making family, and ricotta is one of our specialties. My mom often made us “pasta e ricotta”, which was our Italian childhood take on mac and cheese. That’s one of the most nostalgic and comforting recipes for me, so when I recently had a craving for it, I tried to reinvent it in a more “adult” way… Enter this lemon-ricotta bucatini dish.
This sauce does not require any cooking and can literally be made in no-time. This dish may appear fancy, but it’s incredibly easy to put together, which makes it the perfect dish to serve when hosting! Topping it with the caramelized lemon slices and topping it with the toasted pine nuts is what makes it more “adult” and also gives it a gorgeous presentation.
This is an ideal dish to serve if you are decorating your table with a lemon-inspired theme, like I did here. Try your hand at these three easy DIY lemon centrepieces, and you have the base for a whole dinner party, in a flash!
Enjoy! XX
Lemon-Ricotta Bucatini
Ingredients
- 1 pack bucatini pasta
- 450 grams whole milk ricotta
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 lemons one zested + juiced; the other cut into thin rounds
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano Reggiano
- 1 tbsp chili pepper flakes
- salt + pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 bunch fresh basil leaves
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 1 cup reserved pasta water
Instructions
- Place a pot of water to boil.
- In the meantime, whisk together the ricotta, olive oil, lemon zest & juice, parmigiano, chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
- In a skillet, toast the pine nuts (roughly 4-5mins) and set aside.
- In the same skillet, melt the butter on medium-high heat. Place the lemon rounds to caramelize (roughly 2 mins on each side) – remove when browned on both side sand let strain on a paper towel lined plate (they will harden slightly while cooling). Once cooled, reserve four rounds for garnishing, finely chop the rest.
- Finely chop the basil and combine with chopped caramelized lemon.
- Cook the pasta in heavily salted water, according to package directions – should be al dente.
- Once cooked, reserve one cup of the pasta water and strain the pasta.
- Add ½ cup of the reserved pasta water to the ricotta mixture and stir to thin it out. If it is still too thick, add a little more water. The consistency should remain creamy.
- Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and toss to combine entirely.
- Serve topped with the basil & lemon garnish, toasted pine nuts and a slice of the caramelized lemon.
