We harvested our first peas this weekend, so a spring pasta dish made it onto our dinner menu.
I melted 2 tbsp. of butter then sauteed 4 minced garlic cloves and a thinly sliced leek for approx. 5 minutes.
Then I sliced a few mushrooms and added them to the pan for a few more minutes, along with salt and pepper to taste. Then I turned the heat off and got busy with the rest of the ingredients.
Here they are: pappardelle pasta, 2 lemons, fresh peas, low fat ricotta cheese and parmesian cheese. The first thing I did was zest the two lemons into the pan of vegetables. No lemon juice was used in this recipe, I saved the zest-less lemons in the fridge for another day.
I cooked the peas in boiling water for 2 minutes then scooped them out with a slotted spoon and moved them to the pan of veggies. The pasta nests went right into the boiling water and cooked for 4 minutes.
I moved the cooked pasta to the pan of veggies and turned the heat on medium.
I alternated adding large spoonfuls of ricotta cheese with small ladels of the pasta water. I didn't measure, but think I used about 1/2 cup of the pasta water and 3/4 cup of the ricotta. I then mixed in 1/4 cup of the parm cheese. I only cooked this for about 2 more minutes while stirring to incorporate everything together.
It turned out really nice!
