Plowing through the images on Tastespotting, marking my favorites as I've been doing in any spare time once I found out you could do such a thing, I happened to come across this recipe. It was a lot fancier sounding, but what caught my eye was the quantity of ricotta called for, one cup. I had 7 ounces left from having prepared the gluten-free lasagna and so the recipe immediately went into the latest queue.
Fettucine with Peas, Sausage, and Ricotta Cheese
adapted from Genesis of a Cook
1 lb fettucine pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb hot italian sausage, casings removed
1 lb frozen peas, thawed
7 oz part-skim ricotta cheese
1 bunch of basil leaves, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano cheese, optional
salt, to taste
1 lb fettucine pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb hot italian sausage, casings removed
1 lb frozen peas, thawed
7 oz part-skim ricotta cheese
1 bunch of basil leaves, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano cheese, optional
salt, to taste
Bring a large pot to a boil on medium-high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite. Reserve a cup of the pasta cooking water; drain pasta. Set aside.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic; once fragrant add the sausage.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic; once fragrant add the sausage.
Use a wooden spoon the break up the sausage into bite size pieces. When sausage starts to brown, after about 5 minutes, set aside in a colander over a bowl allowing fat to drain.
Add the peas to the pan and using the back of the wooden spoon, smash the peas*. Turn off the heat.
*My peas, as they weren't completely thawed when they went into the skillet, didn't get smashed. Any initial attempt I made caused them to shoot out of the skillet. I gave up, though I did enjoy eating quite a few of the plump little rounds once they were warm.
After draining fettucine in colander, return it immediately to the pot and add ricotta cheese, tossing to coat, adding reserved cooking water in 1/4 cup increments as necessary to moisten the pasta.
After draining fettucine in colander, return it immediately to the pot and add ricotta cheese, tossing to coat, adding reserved cooking water in 1/4 cup increments as necessary to moisten the pasta.
Add the peas, sausage and basil, tossing to coat after each addition, adding additional pasta water as necessary. Salt to taste.
Serve the finished pasta with pecorino-romano if desired.
Execution was really simple and straightforward. Instead of goofing around like I did stirring after each addition to the pasta, it would be even more simple to dump everything in and then stir. I should've smashed the peas as they tended to roll to the bottom of my bowl. Also, I could've been a little more generous with the pasta water additions as mine wound up a little on the dry side. In the future, I'll do this with multi-colored pasta as it would be so prettier.
I skipped the pecorino-romano cheese and salt at the end of the recipe and didn't miss it.
Cost:
- fettucine: $0.99
- garlic: $0.15
- sausage: $3.49
- peas: $1.29
- ricotta: $1.09
- basil: $1.65
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