Lemon Ricotta Pasta

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb pasta
• zest from 1 meyer lemon (2 if small)
• juice from half a meyer lemon
• 1 cup ricotta
• 1 cup grated parmesan
• 1 cup cooked veggies (spinach or sweet peas or sliced asparagus, etc)
• salt/black pepper
• olive oil
• red chili flakes
• optional protein: grilled chicken, pan fried salmon, etc

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cook pasta 1-2 min less than instructions in big pot of boiling salted water.
2. In a separate bowl, combine ricotta, zest, juice, 1 tsp salt, some black pepper
3. Reserve some pasta water. Drain pasta. Put pasta back in pot. Add ricotta mixture.
4. On low heat, mix in sauce to evenly coat pasta, slowly adding in reserved pasta water to thin it out a bit to preferred consistency.
5. Mix in veggies and olive oil.
6. Serve and top with protein and or red chili flakes and or extra grated parmesan.

Pumpkin and Spinach Pasta

yea. this is me putting off studying for pharmacology.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 small kabocha squash (japanese pumpkin)
• 1 shallot
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• ~1 tsp cinnamon
• ~1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 handful of baby spinach
• 1 serving spinach linguini
• 1 tbs goat cheese
• salt, pepper
• fresh sage
• 1/4 cup of milk or cream

INSTRUCTIONS

• preheat oven 400F
• cut squash in half, scoop out seeds (roast these in the toaster oven with some cinnamon, salt, pepper, and nutmeg! mmmm…makes the house smell reeeally good). halve again lengthwise, then once more to form 8 wedges. then halve the wedges width-wise (?) into triangles. i used 8 wedges for this recipe and found it more than enough for a one person serving.
• bake squash in oven for 20-30 min.
• mince and saute shallots in butter. season with cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, pepper. remove from heat and set aside.
• in a small pot, boil water, cook linguini.
• while linguini cooks, remove squash from oven (a fork should pierce wedges easily, but not sink into a mushy mass.) cut flesh off of skins (i used a paring knife), cut into cubes, and add to blender. add a dash of milk/cream, sautéed shallots, a couple leaves of fresh sage, and pulse until blended smooth. add more cream if you prefer a thinner consistency sauce. salt to taste. (but not too salty because goat cheese will add another layer of saltiness.)
• reboil hot pasta water (yea i’m lazy) and cook a handful of spinach. remove when just wilting and plate on top of pasta.
• spoon pumpkin puree over spinach.
• add a tbs of goat cheese on top of puree (you can use any other type of cheese. mascarpone blended into the puree. grated hard cheese. be creative. i just always happen to have goat cheese in my fridge).
• sprinkle on some toasted pine nuts and/or toasted pumpkin seeds.
• i had a couple of extra wedges of roasted pumpkin so i added that to the plate too. you can also dump them into the blender with the rest of the pureed pumpkin, pulse a couple times, and have some nice chunks in the sauce.

now back to my drug list…

i am rather proud of how tonight’s dinner turned out

spinach linguini with yellow squash, crumbled goat cheese, and toasted almonds.
this was the result of my little trip to Central Market yesterday. (:

rather inconvenient that your average food item is not packaged for one. i suppose i will just have to find people to feed. (i have lots of basil goat cheese in my fridge right now and i am not entirely sure how i will use it all…)

next week i shall try the salmon + sweet potato brazilian fish stew recipe i found today. hoorah for having a big kitchen!