Pulling another Bunny from a Hat

Linguine Estive con Limone, Ricotta Fresca & Erbe Miste

Summer Linguini with Lemon, Fresh Ricotta and Herbs

Yes indeed, even on the night before I leave on vacation- I put together an admittedly simple, but nevertheless tasty plate of pasta for you all. Well, actually, it was for ME as it was my supper... but I digress! I really pushed myself to the limits this time- but yes- I have managed to really empty my fridge and the last few remnants from it went to make up this meal. Half a carrot, a Spring onion, assorted herbs and 2 scoops of cream cheese! Oh- and my last lemon! That's how little you sometimes need to create a lot of happiness at suppertime!

I know I always make out that my dishes are really quick and easy to make... but people- this dish was really quick and easy to make! It literally took 10 minutes! 7 minutes for the pasta to cook and 3 minutes to transform it into this lemony, minty, nutmeg and lemon-infused, herb and ricotta delight! Sounds like quite a lot, considering so little is in there, doesn't it?

First of all I sliced a little lemon peel very thinly, taking only the yellow peel and avoiding the white pith and then copped it as finely as possible. In a small saucepan, I began to cook the linguini, in boiling, salted water as usual.

Whilst the pasta was on the boil, I diced half of a carrot as finely as I could, sliced the Spring onion thinly and chopped both a handful of mint and parsley as well as a little bunch of tender fresh thyme very finely too. Phew! That was my prep-work out of the way!
After the pasta had boiled for 5 minutes, I added the carrots to it so that they would briefly be blanched in the remaining 2 minutes that the pasta would be cooking.

At the same time, I began to fry the sliced Spring onion, with a little crushed garlic and the 

mixed herbs and zest in just a tablespoonful of olive oil... and within a minute or so, it began to smell pretty wonderful! I cranked-up the heat on the frying pan, drained the pasta, although not too thoroughly and added it to the onion, herbs and zest in the frying pan.

I tossed it and stirred it thoroughly with a pair of tongues, being careful to pick up all of the finely chopped ingredients. I let it continue cooking it for a minute or so, then removed it from the heat, added 2 tablespoons of ricotta cheese and seasoned it generously with freshly grated nutmeg and freshly ground black pepper. I made sure to keep it off the heat so the cheese didn't curdle, but much rather created a nice creamy coating on the linguini to counterpoint the lemon and herb, garlic flavor.

A tiny squeeze of lemon, an extra drizzle of olive oil and a few drops of green Tabasco- and a small miracle happened on my dinner plate! And it could happen on yours too if you wanted it to!