Make the fam happy with ziti
Is there anything better than coming home from a long day and sitting down to a bowl of comforting pasta? Or knowing you need to feed the family quickly and you can throw together something that they'll all like? We don't think so.
This week’s pasta dish ticks all the boxes and contains lots of fresh ingredients such as spinach, spring onions, herbs, lemon plus the ricotta cheese makes a creamy sauce for the pasta! It's a quick and easy stovetop dinner that comes together in 20 minutes, and it's so good you'll eat it all up in just minutes, too.
The recipe
Creamy Ziti Florentine
- Serves
- 4-6
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cooking Time
- 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 400 grams dried pasta - whichever you happen to have in the pantry. We used Ziti
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 bunch spring onions, whites and light green parts only, thinly sliced
- 4 cups baby spinach leaves
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan or Pecorino Romano, plus more for garnish
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 cup fresh ricotta
- 1/2 cup torn basil leaves, loosely packed
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Method
- Cook the pasta: Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil and cook the pasta as per the packet. Scoop out and reserve 2 cups of the starchy pasta cooking water, and drain the pasta in a colander.
- Cook the spring onions and spinach: In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the spring onions and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes, or until the spring onions soften. Add the spinach and cook, turning with tongs, for 1 to 2 minutes, or just until it wilts.
- Finish the pasta: Add the cooked pasta to the skillet, along with 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. Add the parmesan, lemon zest, ricotta, basil, and parsley. Stir vigorously until combined. Add more pasta cooking water if the pasta seems dry. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if you like.
- Serve the pasta: Spoon the ziti into shallow bowls and sprinkle with more parmesan.
ZitiCheeseVegetarian