Spinach & Ricotta Fettuccine

I love my creamy pastas, particularly pasta boscaiola, but sometimes they can be a little bit heavy. So here's a great alternative. Instead of using cream, why not try using ricotta? It cooks down really well, so you get that lovely silky finish and you get a lighter touch. Now to start my sauce, I'm going to use some garlic and some chili. And with this sauce, I'm gonna keep it super simple, so minimal ingredients, and it's also vegetarian. So one clove of garlic that I'm just gonna finely chop. I like to add my garlic and my chili into a cold pan, and then we're gonna turn the heat on just so it doesn't burn. We just wanna flavour that oil. So one long red chili. They're slightly milder. I don't want this to be too hot or overpowering because it's all about keeping it super light and fresh with that ricotta. And what I like to do is just reserve a little bit of this chili because we can sprinkle that on the top later on. I'll run my knife through it a few times. And of course, if you wanna make this for the kids and I make this for my little boy, I just leave the chili out. He actually really loves this. And I think because it's the simple flavours of ricotta and spinach and pasta, of course, that he just loves so much. All right, so in with our chili, reserving about a third of it. A good glug of olive oil. And I'll turn the heat on. Now use a large pan for this, even though it's not a lot of sauce. You wanna be able to toss the pasta in at the end. And we'll let that come up to a little sizzle. Now, while that's cooking away, let's get on to our ricotta component. So in a bowl, I'll add some ricotta. Use a full-fat ricotta for this. It's going to be lovely and creamy. Going to add a whole tub. And to this, we're going to add a generous amount of parmesan. You could also use pecorino for this. I highly recommend using a fresh block of parmesan and freshly grating it. There's just something about it. It really comes together nicely in the pan when it hits the heat. So we want a large handful. And, of course, some for the top later on, OK? To this, I'll add the zest of one lemon, finely grating it so we get that beautiful, intense flavour of just zest and not the pith. And we may use some of that lemon juice later on too. Also, some nutmeg, a good pinch of salt, and I like some pepper too, so just a little crack of pepper can go in there. OK, just give that a really good mix. And just by mixing it like this, you'll see that it loosens up quite significantly. In fact, you can just change that over to a whisk and really work that until it becomes quite smooth. If you're worried that it's too stiff, all you need to do is add a splash of milk or, even better, a splash of cream. Alright, let's have a look at the garlic. Garlic is looking good. I'm actually going to turn the heat off just for a moment. You don't want it to burn. And then we're going to cook the pasta. Now, I'm using a lovely handmade fresh fettuccine for this. Fettuccine and ricotta sauces go so well together. And the texture of fresh pasta with a simple sauce is just so much better. Some boiling water, a good pinch of salt. And because it is fresh pasta, it takes no time at all to cook, so about three minutes. And as you add the fresh pasta, just separate it with your hands like I'm doing. And that'll take about three to four minutes to cook until it's al dente. And then we can finish off the sauce if that fast. Alright, this pasta is almost cooked. So let's finish off the sauce. I've just turned the heat back on the garlic. We don't want to burn it. And then in with our spinach. Now, this is going to wilt in no time at all. So add a big bunch of it. By the time I add the sauce and the hot pasta, it'll be just perfect. Just use a wooden spoon. And just allow it to start to wilt, which it is now. Give it a bit of a toss. I also like to add a splash of water. So just with my ladle, a little splash of water. You can see it just steams it automatically. Perfect. I'm going to turn the heat off now because I don't want it to be too hot when I add my ricotta. And then in with our lovely creamy ricotta mixture. Look at that. There's just something about ricotta, particularly when it's mixed in with the nutmeg and the lemon zest and parmesan. Now we just gently stir that in. And you can see as you mix it, it just starts to soften up and melt away into a sauce. Now, the key to not splitting this is to turn off the heat. And that residual heat will allow it to form the creamy base. Looks good. All right. In with our pasta. As always, I don't strain it in a colander. Go straight in, allowing some of that starchy water to go in. Last little bit can go in. And now we can give this a bit of a stir and a toss. Toss that together. Okay. Let's plate this up. I'm just going to use a ladle and a tong just so I can neatly transfer it from my pan to the bowl. Just swirling it into the center and let's be generous with this. Another nest. Beautiful. Look at that. And don't forget all that spinach. Let's add another big amount of that on top. Remember that chili that we had at the beginning? Here it is. And you can see why you want to add it at the end. Just that pop of color, some extra parmesan on the plate. And if you like, freshly cracked pepper over the top. And that is a stunning pasta. Super creamy, but surprisingly light because we've used ricotta. Give it a go.