Lemon Ricotta Pasta

Lemon, ricotta, parsley, and pine nuts… a light and refreshing dish for a sunny spring day. You can easily tailor it to your likes. The original recipe is from Cooking Classy and provides a delicious grilled chicken recipe if you plan to make this from scratch. We love the original recipe, but we do add one extra ingredient, toasted pine nuts. We have enjoyed it on so many Easters. Lemons are in season from February to late summer where we live so I try to keep ricotta on hand for this easy weeknight meal. 

• If you are a vegetarian, omit the chicken and add toasted pine nuts to the pasta.
• Toast pine nuts in a stainless steel frying pan over medium heat. Stir pine nuts constantly to keep from burning, 5 minutes or less, remove from
• Heat and pan promptly and set aside. . 
• The original recipe calls for spinach, but experiment with whatever greens you have available. If using Swiss chard remove stems.
• For this recipe, you will need 1 cup of reserved pasta water to make the sauce. Why? Well, the starch in the pasta water will help break down the Parmesan cheese for your sauce so you don't end up with a goopy mess. 

Ingredients

• 16 oz pkg bow-tie pasta
• 12 oz ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 8 oz spinach or swiss chard, stemmed
• 2 Tbs lemon juice (1 large lemon)
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 cup reserved pasta water
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 2 cups leftover cooked chicken breasts
• 3 sprigs fresh parsley*
• 3/4 tsp Sea salt 
• 1/4 tsp Black pepper

Make It

1. Bake 2 chicken breasts in the oven: Brush with olive oil, season both sides with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes or until chicken reaches 165F. 
2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add pasta and whole fresh parsley. Cook according to directions, usually 7-8 minutes. 
3. While your water comes to a boil toast your pine nuts. Place pine nuts in a stainless steel pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until pine nuts get slightly golden, remove from the pan and heat right away, and set aside. 
4. Once pasta cooks, reserve 1 cup of pasta water, and remove parsley. Drain and keep pasta in the pot.
5. Turn the heat to medium-low, add olive oil, and sauté garlic for 1 minute.
6. Add 1/2 cup of pasta water, zest, lemon juice, ricotta, salt, and pepper to taste.
7. Turn off the heat, mix in shredded parmesan cheese, until the sauce is creamy. 
8. You may now add your greens of choice.
9. Toast 1cup of pine nuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Pine nuts burn easily so you must stir the pine nuts constantly to prevent burning.
10. Toss pine nuts into pasta.
11. Top with warm chicken or mix into the pasta. However, you prefer.