Better Than Alfredo?! Try This Creamy Ricotta Pasta Recipe

➡️ Try my https://youtu.be/C-z_iY70nck
✅ Creamy Ricotta Pasta (Ready in 15 Minutes!)

🕒 Total Time: 15 minutes
🍽 Serves: 1 (large portion)

🛒 Ingredients:
160g (about 5.5 oz) pasta of your choice (spaghetti or penne work great)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp chili flakes (optional)
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 ladle (approx. 60 ml) pasta cooking water
2 tbsp ricotta cheese
3–4 tbsp dairy cream (or heavy cream)
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
Chopped chives or parsley, to garnish
Salt (for pasta water – about 1/2 tbsp)

🔪 Instructions:

Boil the Pasta:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1/2 tablespoon salt. Cook pasta until al dente (about 1–2 minutes less than package instructions).

Sauté the Garlic:
While pasta cooks, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add finely chopped garlic and sauté for 2–3 minutes, until just beginning to turn golden.

Add Chili & Lemon Zest:
After 1 minute of cooking the garlic, add 1/4 tsp chili flakes (optional) and the zest of 1 lemon. Cook for another minute.

Add Pasta Water:
Pour in about 1/2 ladle of starchy pasta water to the pan and stir to combine.

Make the Creamy Sauce:
Turn off the heat. Add 2 tablespoons of ricotta cheese, followed by 3–4 tablespoons of dairy cream and 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan. Mix well until smooth.

Combine with Pasta:
Add cooked pasta to the sauce. Turn heat back to medium and stir gently for 1–2 minutes until the pasta absorbs the flavors and the sauce thickens.

Taste & Adjust:
Taste for salt. (You may not need extra since the pasta water is salted.)

Garnish & Serve:
Turn off the heat. Top with chopped chives or parsley. Serve immediately.

✅ Quick Tips:
Want it cheesier? Add more ricotta or Parmesan.
No dairy cream? Sub with pasta water + a touch more ricotta.
Add peas, spinach, or sun-dried tomatoes for variations.
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This creamy ricotta pasta tastes absolutely amazing and is ready in no longer than 15 minutes. Now, before you start doing anything else, get your pasta water on the heat with about half tablespoon of salt in it. And while the pasta is cooking, let’s get ready the rest of the ingredients. Starting with one clove of garlic. Now, one cloth is perfectly fine because after cooking, you’re not going to feel it that strong. And it works really well with creamy sauces. And especially in this combination, you’ll see that it makes a whole lot of difference. Set the pan on medium heat. And to this, we adding 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. The garlic can go in. And now we’re going to cook this for about 2 3 minutes or until it just starts getting a bit of color. But after a minute of cooking, I want to get in two more ingredients. One, chili flakes. We’re going in with about a/4 of teaspoon. kind of optional. If you don’t like chilies, just skip it. And another ingredient, which I think for this recipe is quite crucial, is lemon zest. So, we’re getting in the zest of one lemon. I already can start feeling the aroma from the garlic and from the lemon zest. It smells absolutely amazing. But this is the time when we’re going to go in now with the pasta water, which in this situation is quite an important step of the process. So, we’re getting in about half ladle of pasta water. And make sure that your pasta is cooked al dente, which means to bite. So, it’s not like you’re biting into a spoon of mashed potatoes. Usually, this means about one 2 minutes less than it says on the package. Now I have here my ricott cheese and I want to add about two tablespoons to begin with. If you want it more cheesy, you can definitely add more, but for a big portion, two tablespoons should do the job. And at this stage, turn off the heat. I also have here some dairy cream. And I’m going to get in about three four tablespoons. Parmesan cheese, which will work really well in this situation because you’ve got the ricott, which is kind of like a fresh young cheese, and you have the parmesan, which is aged, and they work just really well as a combination. Right, the pasta can go in as well. And now I’m going to turn on the heat to medium. And I want to cook this a bit further because this way the pasta will absorb some of that flavor from the sauce. And because our pasta water was quite salty, we might not need any more salt, but taste and see for yourself. And now that we got to a nice creamy consistency, we can turn off the heat. And to finish this, you can add some chopped chives or some chopped parsley. And if you enjoy this simple recipe, let me know in the comments how would you make this differently and what other ingredients would you add to make this recipe better. I’m always up for suggestions and you probably have a better version. Thanks for watching.