Zucchini Recipe Pasta And Ricotta

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Pasta and ricotta is a great combination, creamy and light at the same time. Add some zucchini and you have a complete meal on a pasta plate.

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Cooking with ricotta
Ricotta and zucchini
Other vegetables you can use with ricotta
How to make the zucchini and ricotta sauce
In the meantime make the pasta
Tips for making the best pasta and ricotta
Recipes you might also like
📋Zucchini Recipe Pasta And Ricotta

Cooking with ricotta

Ricotta is a cheese made by re-cooking (ri-cotta in Italian) the serum, called whey, is leftover after the milk has been curdled to make cheese. Therefore it is a cheese with a low-fat content. Usually made from cows milk, it can also be made from sheep or goats milk. Cow milk ricotta is better for making desserts as it has a milder flavour. In Sicily and in the South of Italy, it is often used in cooking, in particular, to make desserts in substitution of butter or cream. Delicious ricotta deserts are Cannoli Siciliani, Sfogliatella Napoletana, and the traditional Easter Pie Pastiera Napoletana. In savoury dishes, ricotta is used in quiche, pizza and lasagna.

Caramelized Squash Ricotta Spinach Bacon Quiche

Ricotta and zucchini

For this pasta I combine the ricotta with zucchini, specifically zucchini Trombetta which I am growing in my garden. Zucchini Trombetta are long and curved zucchini shaped like a trumpet and they are typical of the Italian Ligurian region.

They are crunchy and have a distinctive flavour and if you want to know more about it you can read my article: The Amazing Zucchini Trombetta Albenga In the article, you will find additional zucchini recipes and you can make them with any regular zucchini.

If I cannot find zucchini Trombetta, I always buy small zucchini as they have fewer seeds and they are not too watery.

If you want to know more about unusual Italian vegetables, you can find the video of my morning trip to Ventimiglia market here below:

Other vegetables you can use with ricotta

In this pasta and Ricotta recipe you can substitute zucchini with many other vegetables. Ricotta combines well with many: spinach, tomatoes, artichokes, onion…

What also works well is a Soffritto (Italian) or Mirepoix (French) with onion, celery and carrot made stir-fried in butter. Sofritto or Mirepoix is the base for many Italian and French recipes and since I use it very often I always keep a bag of chopped onion, carrot and celery in my freezer.

So if I don’t have any other vegetables at home I can always grab a bag of Sofritto add some ricotta, boil some pasta and a meal is ready in a flash. If I have some, I will also add bacon to complete. If you want to know more about what I keep in my freezer, you can read the article: Once a Month Freezer Meal Prep

How to make the zucchini and ricotta sauce

The ingredients to make the ricotta sauce are the following:

4 zucchini
1 garlic clove
9 oz – 250 g of ricotta
2 tbsp butter (I usually use butter when I use ricotta but you can use olive oil instead)
2 tbsp olive oil

First I cook the zucchini:

Cut the zucchini into round slices
Slice the garlic and stir-fry with butter and olive oil
Add the zucchini
Stir-fry until golden

In the meantime make the pasta

Bring to boil a pot of water with a tbsp of salt
Once it is boiling put in the pasta and cook for 1 minute less than what is written in the package
Once it is done drain the pasta but remember to keep 2 tbsp of the cooking water

In this recipe, I used Rotelle pasta De Cecco as the shape is the same size as the trombette zucchini, but you can use any other type of pasta that will trap the ricotta within. For example Tortiglioni, Zita, Rigatoni, Paccheri, Gnocchi o Fusilli.

Mix the zucchini with the ricotta
Add 2 tbsp of water from the boiling pasta to soften the ricotta
When the pasta is ready, drain it and add it to the zucchini
Season with some parmesan and pepper and serve immediately

Tips for making the best pasta and ricotta

Buy good quality ricotta
Use a pasta shape that will trap the ricotta in between
Keep the pasta al dente
Combine with some stir-fried vegetables
Stir fry with butter as it combines better with the ricotta
For added flavour stir fry some bacon with the vegetables
Add 2 tbsp of pasta cooking water to make the ricotta creamier
Add plenty of parmesan and black pepper
Serve immediately

Recipes you might also like

If you are looking for more pasta with vegetable recipes, you can check the category: Pasta

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