Ricotta Pesto Pasta

5 from 5 votes

This pesto ricotta pasta is creamy, fresh, and ready in 20 minutes. Made without heavy cream, it’s an easy, flavor-packed dinner for any night.

Prep Time10

Cook Time8

Course: dinner, lunch

Cuisine: American, Italian

Servings:

Calories: 579kcal

Author: Agnieszka

Ingredients

12 oz pasta pappardelle, fetuccine or your favorite shape
1 cup ricotta cheese whole milk
½ cup basil pesto homemade or storebought
⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese or pecorino romano, plus more for serving
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ - ⅓ cup reserved pasta water
fresh basil leaves, salt and pepper, fresh basil leaves for serving

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1-2 tablespoon salt. Boil the pasta according to package instructions.
Reserve ½-1 cup of pasta boiling water towards the end of cooking time. Set aside.
While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce. In a medium box mix together ricotta, pesto, grated parmesan cheese and lemon juice.
Transfer the pesto mixture into a large skillet and turn the burner to low.
Loosen the sauce with 2 tablespoons of pasta boiling water and stir it in.
Transfer the boiled drain pasta into the sauce and stir everything together until the pasta is fuly coated.
If you want thinner sauce, add more pasta boiling water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Serve immediately with more grated parmesan cheese, fresh basil leaves, salt and pepper, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, if deired. Lemon zest works, too!

Notes

Stir the pesto well before adding to this recipe to make sure it's not too oily (oil tends to gather on top).

I like long wide pasta, such as pappardelle or fettucine for this recipe best but any shape pasta will work.

Don't forget to reserve some pasta boiling water before you drain the pasta. It will help the sauce to thin and become silky.

My homemade pistachio basil pesto works great for this recipe but I also made it with Costco's refrigerated pesto with good results.

I used low-fat ricotta from Galbani. Whole milk ricotta will also work. Some ricotta brands are more grainy than others and may affect the consistency of the sauce.

Nutrition