Rigatoni Pasta with Creamy Ricotta and Spinach | Weight Loss Recipe

I’ve been whipping up this creamy ricotta with spinach & rigatoni for dinner, and it’s proof that pasta, fat, and cheese can still be part of a weight-loss recipe, as long as you make them the Mediterranean way. In under 15 minutes (just the time it takes to boil pasta!), you’ll have a satisfying, veggie-packed dinner that keeps you full without derailing your goals. Ready to get comfy with cheese again? Let me know below if you’re surprised pasta can be a healthy choice!

Click Here for the Recipe : https://www.mediterraneanliving.com/rigatoni-with-creamy-ricotta-and-spinach-rigatoni-e-spinaci/

🍴 What You’ll Need:
• 8 oz whole-wheat rigatoni (cook al dente for lower glycemic index)
• 1 cup full-fat ricotta cheese
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach, chiffonaded (or double for extra veggies)
• 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan (plus extra for topping)
• Pasta cooking water (reserve 1 ladle‐ful)

🫒 My go-to olive oil:
Terra Creta Extra Virgin Olive Oil (3L) → https://amzn.to/3RhS1iK

🔗 Download Your FREE 3-Day Mediterranean Weight Loss Meal Plan PDF: https://www.mediterraneanliving.com/free-3-day-mediterranean-diet-weight-loss-meal-plan/

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DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of William Bradley, R.D., and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice or treatment from a personal physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions. Neither William Bradley, R.D. nor the publisher of this content takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All viewers of this content, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement or lifestyle program.

#mediterraneandiet #weightloss #ricottapasta #healthyrecipes #RD

here are three things that you normally don’t think of when you’re making a weight loss recipe pasta fat and cheese today I’m going to be making an amazing Mediterranean diet weight loss recipe creamy ricotta with spinach and it only takes the amount of time for the pasta to cook for it to be done so the first thing you want to do if you’re making a quick recipe like this is make sure that the thing that takes the longest is the first thing that you do and so we’re starting with making the pasta we have the water boiling here already we’re going to add 8 oz of rietoni that takes about 13 minutes to cook and it only is going to take a few minutes to make the sauce for this and we’re starting with some regular highfat ricotta cheese um again with a weight loss recipe a lot of people are like “Why would you have the high fat?” Because the fat is going to help to fill you up so we’re going to add this in it’s also the way that they in the Mediterranean they’re always going to have regular fat cheese and not and regular fat cheese regular fat yogurt uh it’s and again uh if you look at people in the Mediterranean traditionally they had no weight issues they had the lowest rates of heart disease and cancer and diabetes in the world and this is the way they eat um so we’re going to uh add to the ricotta extra virgin olive oil a little bit of apple cider vinegar salt and freshly ground black pepper we’re going to take that and whisk it and you want this to be a nice creamy consistency and we are going to add we we can add some pasta water to it um once the pasta is cooked as well but we right now I think I’m going to add just a little bit of water to this to make it just a little bit creamier there we go that’s good and next we’re going to chifonade which means make little slices of the spinach and with the Mediterranean diet you’re always going to have with a recipe like this plenty of uh vegetables and I if I were to make this recipe not only would I have a lot of spinach um I might even add more spinach sometimes I could I might add twice as much spinach as uh this recipe calls for because I like to have a lot of vegetables um you could use something like red pepper as well in here um but we’re going to stick to the traditional Italian recipe but the point is is that especially for weight loss if you are making a dish like this you could also have a lot of other vegetables on the side so we’re going to add this in and whisk that up and most of the sauce is ready so that took what like a minute including cutting the spinach and then all we have to do is wait for the pasta to cook and then we’ll uh we’ll finish up the recipe we’re just about ready to drain the pasta but there was a couple things I wanted to talk about uh especially with weight loss so first of all there was a study a few years ago that showed that people in Italy that ate pasta were able to lose weight quicker than people that didn’t eat pasta and pasta can definitely be part of a weight loss diet um especially if you’re eating it with lots of other good food the other thing is that you want to make sure that you cook your pasta al dente and what that means is that just to the point where it’s it’s still just a little bit chewy not where it’s super like soggy and the reason is is that uh the more that you cook the pasta after that the higher the glycemic index gets which means that the higher your blood sugar is going to spike making you more likely wanting to eat more or have cravings and so it’s best to do it al dente and that’s where we are right now so I am going to drain this pasta uh oh one thing before we drain the pasta is you you want to take just a little bit of the pasta water not it doesn’t have to be a lot like one one ladle full like that and put it aside because we are going to add that to the sauce i might actually just take a little bit more just in case you can always throw that throw that out after so we’re going to drain the pasta another great thing about this dish is that everything happens besides the cooking pot in this bowl so once the most once it’s fairly well drained and again we’re going to be adding some of the pasta water anyways so it doesn’t have to be super uh super drained um so then we’re going to mix the ricotta and the spinach in with the pasta oh this looks so good i shouldn’t make these cooking videos when I’m so hungry all right and that landed on my toe so we’re going to add a little bit of parmesan to this and just to make it a little bit creamier but then we’re also going to uh grate a little bit on top of the individual serving so this looks pretty creamy but I’m going to add just a little bit of the pasta water there and we uses we use salted pasta water so it’s another reason not to add any more salt until you’re done um to see if you if you uh need to salt it anymore so you serve serve the pasta in a bowl and again I would have some other vegetables with this a salad would go really nice with this even just a simple salad because you have the cheese in the pasta so you don’t need more cheese in the salad um then we’re going to grate a little bit uh more parmesan on top and you can add a spoonful of ricotta so you have that nice ricotta flavor and then I would drizzle just a little bit of olive oil on top and there you have it a scrumptious weight loss meal creamy ricotta with spinach and rietoni and remember as always to live with purpose love with abandon and eat with passion see you next time