10-Minute Lemon Ricotta Pasta

Creamy, intensely lemony ricotta pasta sauce made with no cooking required — just mix while the pasta boils. Ready in 10 minutes with 7 ingredients.

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Italian-American

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 5

Total Time 10

Servings as a main

Calories 577kcal

Author Emmeline Kemperyd

Equipment

Measuring spoons*
Measuring cups (metric or US)*
Large pot*
Garlic press or kitchen knife and chopping board

Ingredients

½ lb fresh pasta or dried, but it takes longer to cook
½ cup ricotta cheese
⅓ cup shredded Pecorino cheese + more to serve; or parmesan cheese or a vegetarian substitute
1 small clove garlic minced or pressed
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ lemon zest only; use organic or clean thoroughly before zesting
1 tablespoon olive oil or neutral cooking oil
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper + more to serve
⅓ cup pasta cooking water
salt if needed

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cook the pasta according to package instruction. While it's cooking, make the sauce.
½ lb fresh pasta
Place ricotta, Pecorino, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil and black pepper in a bowl and mix well.
½ cup ricotta cheese, ⅓ cup shredded Pecorino cheese, 1 small clove garlic, 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, ½ lemon, 1 tablespoon olive oil, ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
When the pasta is done, drain it and reserve some of the cooking water. Then place the pasta back in the pot
Add a bit of pasta water to the sauce and mix until creamy, then add to the pasta together with some more pasta cooking water. Mix well until the pasta is well coated with sauce, adding more pasta cooking water if needed.
⅓ cup pasta cooking water
Taste test, and season with salt if needed. Served topped with extra pecorino cheese and fresh ground black pepper!
salt

Notes

Make it vegetarian: Pecorino contains animal rennet, so to make it vegetarian use a pecorino substitute without animal rennet. You can often find "Italian hard cheese" which is similar to parmesan cheese and made without animal rennet, and that will work fine.

Make it gluten-free: Just use gluten-free pasta.

This dish is best eaten fresh. I recommend not making more than you will finish. It's easy to make just 1 serving - just change the number of servings in the recipe card below.

If you know you will have leftovers - don't mix together all the sauce and pasta. Store the sauce (without adding pasta water!) separately from the pasta, and keep a bit of pasta water stored separately as well. When you want to enjoy your leftovers, refresh the pasta by adding it to boiling water for a few seconds, then drain, mix the sauce with pasta water, and then mix in with the pasta.

If you want to store leftovers you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Freezing: I do not recommend freezing leftovers.

Reheating in microwave: Add a splash of water or a drizzle of olive oil, then reheat leftovers in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring between each segment.

Nutrition