Recipe: Mezze Penne with a Creamy Spinach-Ricotta Sauce

After a long morning in the bake shop for class, mixing and kneading basic white bread by hand and learning my way around a proofer and a rotating rack oven, I was absolutely exhausted...I got home, ate leftover mac&cheese, and then promptly fell asleep for about three hours. All my grand plans of going to the bank, shopping at Target, packing for my trip this weekend—it was all for naught. I woke up around 6:00, hungry and in no mood to go out, and I wanted to make something quick and easy for dinner. In an effort to clean out the fridge a bit, I decided to use up the baby spinach I used earlier in the week for my rice dish and the ricotta I'd used in my reginette pasta dish and work them into some sort of sauce. To be perfectly honest, I didn't measure anything—I was cooking just for myself, but I ended up with about 1 cup of sauce, which should serve 2-4 (really, it should be enough to serve 4) when mixed in with pasta. If you find you don't have enough, just add more spinach and ricotta, and adjust the seasonings accordingly (really, just add a little more salt and pepper).

Serves: 2-4
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Food processor

Ingredients

• Approx. 1 cup baby spinach, packed (push down as many leaves into the cup as you can)
• Approx. 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-5 leaves basil, chiffonade cut (I didn't have fresh, so I added a sprinkling of dried basil)
• Approx. 1/4 cup grated/shredded Parmesan or Pecorino-Romano cheese
• Approx. 2-4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste (salt is important in this sauce, because it helps elevate the flavors, which will decrease slightly when the sauce is spread throughout the pasta)
• 8-12 oz. mezze penne or other pasta of your choice (this sauce would work with just about any type of pasta)

Directions

In a food processor, combine the spinach, ricotta, garlic, basil, Parmesan/Pecorino-Romano, olive oil, salt and pepper, and pulse to blend. The mixture will blend into a thick, creamy, pale green sauce. In the meantime, bring a medium-to-large pot of lightly salted water to a boil, then add the pasta and cook according to package instructions (about 8-11 minutes). Drain the pasta, return it to the pot, and toss it with the sauce. Serve sprinkled with Parmesan or Pecorino-Romano cheese.

This sauce is incredibly easy to make and takes just a few minutes to blend. It's got a light flavor and creamy texture that makes it perfect on just about any pasta, and it could even work as a spread or dip. This dish in particular would be a more filling meal with the addition of seared or grilled chicken or shrimp (but, since I was solo tonight, I didn't want to bother with a protein). If you want to experiment a bit, try adding a little lemon zest to the sauce to boost the flavor, or add a pinch of dried oregano or other Italian herb.

Recipe: Reginette Pasta tossed with Sweet Italian Sausage and Ricotta Cheese

While searching through my Pinterest "Recipes to Try" board and the latest uploads to Tastespotting, I came across this recipe for pasta "rags" with fresh ricotta and basil oil and I was instantly inspired. It offered the chance to use my beloved pasta maker and I loved the components that went into it—homemade flavored oil and fresh ricotta cheese. I opted to buy ricotta from the grocery store rather than make it from scratch, and add sweet Italian sausage to add protein and texture to the dish. Making the basil oil was so easy (and it inspired this week's upcoming "Technique Tuesday" post), but extra virgin olive oil would work just as well in this dish. Opting to cut noodles into the reginette shape (one of the "fun" cutters available on my pasta maker) rather than rough-cut "rags" made the dish a little more elegant. Reginette, a wavy-edged ribbon noodle also called mafaldine, can be tricky to find in your average grocery store, but any similarly long and wide noodle (pappardelle, fettuccine) would work. A variety of other pastas, including medium pasta shells (conchiglie) and rigatoni, could potentially work in this dish, but avoid long, thin noodles (spaghetti, angel hair, linguine).

 
Ingredients

• 8-12 oz. reginette pasta, or other long, wide noodle of your choice
• Approx. 1/2 - 3/4 cup ricotta cheese (enough to coat pasta), seasoned with a little salt and pepper
• Approx. 1 lb. sweet Italian sausage, crumbled (really, you'll be pulling it apart into bite-sized pieces)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper, to taste 
• Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
• Dried herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, and Italian seasoning are the best choices), to taste
• Olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of a pan)
• 5-8 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade cut
• Butter (just a little to toss with the pasta)
• Basil oil (mentioned here) or extra virgin olive oil (to coat the pasta)

Directions
Bring a medium-to-large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package instructions, until al dente. Drain it, return it to the pot, then toss it with a little butter to keep the noodles from sticking. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the sausage with a little salt, pepper, dried herbs, and crushed red pepper (just a dash of each is fine). In a large pan, heat a little olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add in the crumbled sausage and cook for about 4-5 minutes, then add in the minced garlic, and cook until the sausage is cooked through and lightly golden-brown. When the sausage is done cooking, toss it and a little basil oil or olive oil with the noodles, then spoon the ricotta into the pasta, and gently toss the mixture to combine. The ricotta is soft and easily coats the pasta, forming a sort deconstructed sauce. Toss in the fresh basil and serve.

This dish is simple, quick to make, and quite tasty. The creamy ricotta clings beautifully to the pasta noodles, and the sausage, with just a hint of heat, brighten up the softer flavors in the dish and add a little texture. Fresh basil adds color and a crisp flavor to the creaminess in the dish and make the dish complete.