As the title of this post indicates, at some point, I couldn't stomach both of my go-to weekend pasta sauce options - one a simple, pureed tomato sauce with garlic and olive, and the other an olive oil, garlic, dried red pepper and parsley combination. And so to the internet I turned to get some new inspiration, particularly for a pasta that incorporated greens (something we could all use more of!).
The recipe that immediately attracted me was Cook's Illustrated's Fusilli with Ricotta and Spinach, which seemed to pair the greens with a rich, creamy sauce. The two-pot recipe was fairly easy to prepare, but the results were a bit bland so I don't think this will be a recipe repeat.
To get started, you cook the pasta and spinach in boiling water, while concurrently seasoning and whisking the ricotta to create a simple sauce.
After you drain the cooked pasta and spinach, bloom the remaining spices in a saute pan and then add the remaining unseasoned ricotta to start to create a holistic sauce.
You then simply toss the pasta with the two ricotta mixtures, let it rest, and toss again before serving.
I did make a few alterations to the recipe, namely decreasing the amount of pasta to approx. 2/3 - 3/4 of the recipe servings to fit the smaller amount of ricotta I purchased for this dish. I also didn't have heavy cream on hand, but the sauce texture still turned out quite smooth.
I think what was missing from this dish was more citrus / lemon, and maybe some tomato or some other complementary acid flavor? In any case, there are more than enough greens pasta recipes out there such that I think this recipe is now condemned to the annals of my cooking history.
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