Delicious and Simple Ricotta and Tomato Pasta Sauce

LovelyRitaMeterMaid's Note:

I just love this recipe! Mum used to make this for us when we were kids. It's apparently a traditional Roman dish, great for vegetarians and very easy and quick to whip up, an awesome dish with a real 'rustic' feel to it! The kids will love it! It is to be served on top of steaming, hot pasta...wholemeal pasta works quite well with this recipe too! Enjoy!

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 cups fresh ricotta
• 1 (400 g) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 leaves fresh basil
• 1 (500 g) package pasta (spirals work well with this recipe)

Directions:

1. Firstly, put on a large pot of salted water and bring to the boil, add pasta to water and cook until'al dente' approximately 8- 10 minutes.
2. While pasta is on the go, finely dice your onion and crush your garlic.
3. In a saucepan, put in the olive oil, when the oil is warm, add your garlic and onion and gently saute these until they are transparent.
4. Add the ricotta to the pan, and stir through the onions and garlic well.
5. At this stage, add your salt and pepper, parmesan, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste.
6. Mix well and let simmer gently for 10 minutes.
7. Drain pasta.
8. Turn the ricotta sauce off from the heat, add your fresh basil leaves, roughly torn, into the sauce.
9. Dish up some pasta into a bowl, put some of the ricotta sauce on top of the pasta, and finish off with some extra shavings of parmesan if desired.

Reviews

[2Bleu]

We all loved this recipe! I stirred all the pasta into the sauce, chopped it up some, and added 8 oz cream cheese to it. Awesome!

[Reed]

This was unlike any spaghetti sauce I've ever made before. My son seemed to enjoy it, and I did too. I certainly appreciated the new twist of adding ricotta, but I only added 1 1/2 c. I probobly added a touch more olive oil than called for and used parmaigionno reggiono (sp?). My husband said he prefers the sauce without ricotta, but still liked it. Thank you for sharing.

[cinda37379]

wonderful and easy to fix even my picky eaters liked it