Sometimes, simple, easy to construct recipes can end up with dishes that taste…simple and uninteresting. Sadly such was the case with my recent modified attempt at the New York Times/Mark Bittman Penne with Ricotta and Peas dish. This very simple dish calls for a basic set of ingredients, basically pasta, ricotta, frozen peas, butter and parmesan.
As the pasta is boiling, you mix together the other ingredients and then add a bit of pasta water to lighten it and meld the ingredients.
You basically then stir this mixture with the cooked pasta.
Voila, you have dinner.
The upside of this dish is that it is very easy to put together, and can potentially be a decent light pasta side. The downside is that the quality of ricotta is key, and my ricotta potentially wasn't up to the task, and the dish basically is the sum of its ingredients – nothing more, nothing less. So if you know pea and ricotta lovers, this dish would be a hit, but otherwise, it might be a forgotten side dish (would not recommend it as a main because of how one-note it is).
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