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Pesto Ricotta Pasta is simply made by combining rich and creamy ricotta cheese with fragrant, savory basil pesto, a touch of lemon and sharp pecorino cheese. It’s a beautiful recipe with a no-cook sauce that anyone can master and is ready in the time it takes to boil water and cook pasta!
Bursting with fresh summery flavor, Pesto Ricotta Pasta is the recipe to make when you don’t really feel like cooking but want something very special, comforting and delicious. It has two main ingredients and is a completely no-cook sauce that couldn’t be easier to assemble.
A great basil pesto makes almost everything better. Check it out in this roasted potato recipe and in these baked meatballs. In both these recipes, pesto provides most of the amazing flavors.
With delicious ingredients like fresh basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and extra-virgin olive oil, pesto adds a savory punch and is, basically, all the seasoning that you’ll need for this delicious pasta. It gets mixed with ricotta cheese and a bit of lemon to make the most delicious, creamy pasta sauce.
This recipe is a perfect use for any frozen pesto that you have on hand from your summer basil harvest (what I did here!), but you can also use a purchased pesto. Or, if you’d like to make some from scratch for this dish, check out my homemade basil pesto recipe here.
Once the hot pasta is combined with the ricotta pesto sauce, it basically becomes more of a casual, room temperature pasta dish. You can even refrigerate it and serve it as a chilled pasta dish for an outdoor get-together this summer. (Use a short pasta if you plan on doing this.)
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- No. Cooking. Required. (well, other than the pasta!): I am confident in saying that anyone can successfully make this dish. No cooking skill required. Your knife skills don’t even need to be good. Have bowl? Can make.
- No-Fuss: Purchase already made pesto or use some that you have stored in your freezer and this recipe comes together in as much time as it takes you to boil water and cook pasta.
- Incredible, Fresh Flavor! Seriously–once you taste the amazing flavor in this dish, I would bet money that you will put this recipe on repeat in your cucina. It’s a great, different way to enjoy the fresh flavors of aromatic basil pesto.
- Screams summer but perfect all year-round. This dish alone is a great reason to grow basil this summer and make and freeze as much pesto as you can for the rest of the year. Who wouldn’t want a little bit of summer during the dark, cold days of winter?
Mix up pasta night and give this easy and vibrant ricotta pesto pasta recipe a try!
Ingredients for Pesto Ricotta Pasta
To make this no-cook recipe properly, use the best quality ingredients that you can, as they will truly make a difference. The ingredients are few, but significant.
- Ricotta Cheese: If you can find “fresh” ricotta cheese, which generally refers to ricotta that has been made homemade at an Italian specialty store, by all means use that! Otherwise, use the best quality/brand that you can find at your local supermarket and whole milk is preferred for best results. It’s the base of the sauce here, so we want all the flavor, richness and creaminess! Having said this, you can use a part-skim ricotta as a substitute, but it will have a thinner and more watery texture than the whole milk variety. (NOTE: Be sure to bring the ricotta to room temperature. Otherwise, it will bring down the temperature of the overall dish too much once it is added to the pasta.)
- Pesto: Along with the ricotta cheese, this dish is all about the pesto! With delicious ingredients like fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and extra-virgin olive oil, pesto adds a savory punch and is, basically, all the seasoning that you will need for this delicious pasta. You can use either homemade or store-bought pesto for this recipe.
- Lemon: Fresh lemon juice and zest add bright citrusy flavor to the rich sauce. Be sure to zest the lemon before you squeeze it for juice!
- Pecorino Romano Cheese: Adds sharpness and saltiness – in a really, really good way!
- Pasta: I used wide pappardelle noodles in this recipe, but it will work with lots of pasta shapes that can hold up to the ricotta, such as rigatoni, fettuccine, ziti, penne rigate and paccheri.
How to Make Pesto Ricotta Pasta, Step-byStep!
Anybody can make this recipe and be successful! It really could not be any simpler. Here are the main steps:
- Prep and gather all ingredients. Pull the ricotta and pesto out of the refrigerator and bring them to room temperature about 45 minutes before serving. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once the water comes to a boil, add salt, then the pasta, stirring frequently.
- PRO TIP: Zest the lemon before squeezing it for juice.
- Mix the ricotta, pesto and lemon zest together in a large bowl.
- PRO TIP: Whole milk ricotta cheese is recommended here for best results.
- Cook the pasta until al dente and reserve some of the starchy pasta water.
- PRO TIP: As the sauce is no-cook, the pasta needs to be cooked to a full al dente before being removed from the boiling water and mixed with the pesto ricotta sauce.
- Transfer the cooked pasta to the ricotta mixture along with the lemon juice, pecorino cheese and black pepper. Mix well. Let the lemon juice get absorbed by the pasta and stir again.
- PRO TIP: If more moisture is needed, add a little reserved pasta water, a couple of tablespoons at a time. It the mixture seems a bit juicy, let it sit for a couple minutes to allow the pasta to absorb the additional liquid.
- Top off with a drizzle of high quality extra virgin olive oil and serve. That’s it!
Check out my answer to “How Much Salt Should You Add to Pasta Water?” here, as featured in Appetito’s online Italian Food and Drink Magazine.
More Summer Pasta Favorites
- Spaghetti and Crabs–the Italian American classic made with blue crabs
- Pasta Sorrentina with Tomatoes, Basil and Fresh Mozzarella–a crowd favorite!
- Homemade Vodka Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes–a fresh twist on the classic
- Pasta with Quick Grape Tomato Sauce–the lovely flavor of fresh tomatoes
- Pasta with Sicilian Trapanese Pesto–a raw tomato and toasted almond pesto
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Pesto is meant to be the most beautiful raw sauce that is perfect simply tossed with hot pasta. You may find it as an ingredient in other recipes where it is used as a flavoring and then gets cooked, such as in this roasted potato recipe and this meatball recipe. But, it can 100% be eaten and enjoyed raw.
No. While homemade pesto is fabulous (and you can find my homemade pesto recipe here), you can purchase already made basil pesto for this recipe.
Traditional pesto alla Genovese from the northern Italian region of Liguria is the most well-known, classic pesto and its main ingredients are fresh basil, parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil and pine nuts.
And, while most other pestos will often contain some basil, they don’t have to. Pestos can be made with different herbs, different nuts and even vegetables! Check out a traditional Sicilian raw tomato and almond pesto trapanese here.
For a few other delicious pasta that have ricotta cheese in the sauce, check out hearty and delicious Bucatini with Ricotta, Slow–Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes, Lemony Pasta with Peas and Ricotta and Pasta alla Checca, a no-cook tomato sauce bursting with flavor!
Ricotta cheese is also the star ingredient in this delicious Sicilian Cheesecake with Orange and Almond!
Recipe Variations for Pesto Ricotta Pasta
- Add Olives: Some chopped black, oil-cured olives would be really nice in this dish and provide a slight briny flavor.
- Add Sun-Dried Tomatoes: Sometimes, I’ll fold in chopped sun-dried tomatoes to this recipe for both color and nice tomato-y flavor.
- Use a different pesto: This recipe is versatile in that it would work with a lot of other types of pestos. Some ideas are a sun-dried tomato pesto, roasted red pepper pesto or a mint pistachio pesto.
- Add Veggies or Chicken: Bite-sized pieces of roasted or grilled vegetables and/or pre-cooked chicken breast would be a nice addition to this recipe.
- Make it spicy! For all the hot pepper lovers out there, I suggest adding some red pepper flakes to the ricotta mixture for heat. And, of course, don’t forget to drizzle some homemade spicy pepper oil over the finished dish!
TOP TIPS FOR PESTO RICOTTA PASTA
- Ricotta: Whole milk ricotta will give you the best flavor, richness and creaminess here. You can use a part-skim ricotta as a substitute, but it will have a thinner and more watery texture.
- Room Temperature: As this is a no-cook sauce, be sure that the main ingredients, ricotta and pesto, are at room temperature so as to not bring down the temperature of the pasta drastically. Pull them out of the refrigerator for at least 45 minutes before using.
- Serving: Enjoy this pasta with some chicken cutlets, Italian sausage or meatballs along with a simple mixed green salad–delicious pairings! In a smaller portion, it would be a great first course for a heartier dish such as beef pizzaiola. And, if you like things a bit picante, drizzle some homemade spicy pepper oil over it!
- Leftovers: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Either bring the leftovers to room temperature before eating or heat them up in a small pan over medium low heat. The sauce will no longer be raw at that point, but it will still be very tasty. Freezing is not recommended.
More Great Recipes to Try
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Easy Pesto Ricotta Pasta (No-Cook Sauce)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound pasta + salt for water
- 1 pound ricotta cheese at room temperature (can use a 15-ounce container)
- 1¼ cups basil pesto at room temperature, either homemade or store-bought
- Zest of 1 lemon
- ⅓ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
- Juice from 1 lemon (Use more if you want!)
- Pinch freshly ground black pepper
- Extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Prep and gather all ingredients according to specifications above. Pull the ricotta and pesto out of the refrigerator and bring them to room temperature about 45 minutes before serving. Zest the lemon before squeezing it for juice. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.(Please see the section above in the blog post for Step-By-Step instructions with photos.)
- Once the water comes to a boil, add salt, then the pasta, stirring frequently.1 pound pasta
- Mix the ricotta, pesto and lemon zest together in a large bowl.1 pound ricotta cheese, 1¼ cups basil pesto, Zest of 1 lemon
- Cook the pasta until al dente and reserve some of the starchy pasta water. (You may or may not need the pasta water.)NOTE: For most of my pasta dishes, I recommend cooking the pasta until about 2 minutes before it is al dente so that it can finish cooking in the sauce. This is not the case with this recipe as the sauce is no-cook. So, when the pasta and sauce are mixed together, the relatively large amount of cold/room temperature ingredients lowers the temperature of the pasta and immediately stops its cooking. Consequently, the pasta should be drained/pulled out of the boiling water at the moment when it is exactly ready (al dente), and then mixed with the sauce.
- Once the pasta is cooked, drain and transfer it to the ricotta mixture along with the pecorino cheese, lemon juice and black pepper. Mix well. Let the lemon juice get absorbed by the pasta and stir again.⅓ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, Juice from 1 lemon, Pinch freshly ground black pepper
- If more moisture is needed, add a little pasta water, a couple of tablespoons at a time. It the mixture seems a bit juicy, let it sit for a couple minutes to allow the pasta to absorb the additional liquid.
- Top off with a drizzle of high quality extra virgin olive oil and serve. Buon Appetito!Extra-virgin olive oil
Notes
- Whole milk ricotta cheese is recommended here for best results.
- Be sure to zest the lemon before squeezing it for juice.
- I used wide pappardelle noodles in this recipe, but it will work with lots of pasta shapes that can hold up to the ricotta, such as rigatoni, fettuccine, ziti, penne rigate and paccheri.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Either bring the leftovers to room temperature before eating or heat them up in a small pan over medium low heat. The sauce will no longer be raw at that point, but it will still be very tasty. Freezing is not recommended.
Would it be ok if I bring the ricotta mixture up to lukewarm before adding it to the pasta?
Hi Heather, I’m not sure I understand the question. The ricotta only gets heated briefly right before you add the hot pasta to it. Alternatively, you can just bring the ricotta cheese to room temperature and mix it with the hot pasta for more of a room temperature pasta. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Love this recipe and that it is soooooo easy. My son helped me make it and loved it!