Lemon–ricotta pasta with peas & mint

Ingredients

Nutrition weights for 2 servings. Changing the batch size keeps the per-serving nutrition the same.

• Egg-free wheat pasta, dry160 g
• Ricotta, vegetarian-rennet180 g
• Green peas, cooked and drained200 g
• Baby spinach, raw60 g
• Lemon juice30 g
• Garlic, peeled6 g
• Olive oil15 g
• Fresh mint leaves5 g
• Iodised salt2 g
• Ground black pepper1 g
• Reserved pasta cooking water100 g

Method

1. Cook the pasta in a saucepan of unsalted boiling water until just tender, following its packet time. Reserve at least 200 ml cooking water before draining. Separately cook the peas until hot, then drain and weigh 200 g cooked peas; the recipe weight is not frozen weight.
2. While the pasta cooks, whisk the ricotta, lemon juice, salt, pepper and 100 g reserved hot pasta water in a bowl until loosened. Use ricotta made with vegetarian rennet and egg-free pasta for the stated vegetarian version.
3. Thinly slice the garlic. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Cook the garlic for 30–60 seconds until fragrant but not brown. Add spinach and stir for 1 minute until wilted.
4. Take the pan off the heat. Add the drained pasta, peas and ricotta mixture; toss until coated. Add a little more reserved pasta water if needed to make a flowing sauce rather than a stiff paste. If it needs warming, use low heat briefly without boiling.
5. Finely slice the mint and fold it through just before serving. Divide between two bowls and serve immediately; the sauce thickens as it stands. All the measured salt goes into the sauce, so its amount is included in the nutrition estimate.

Add optional toppings or substitutions to your saved copy to include them in the calculation.