Penne with Ricotta, Spinach and Cherry Tomatoes

This #homemadeMonday brings you a rather unusual pasta dish for me, in the sense that I am not a big fan of two out of its main three ingredients, but if you mix them all together I love it. The two culprits are spinach and ricotta. I personally find ricotta an embarrassment to all other cheeses and the only green I hate more than spinach must be arugula. And yet… mixing them together, along with some cherry tomatoes, roasted pine nuts and truffle oil, and adding them to the right pasta sort, it just works! It´s perhaps one of the simplest recipes I´ve shared here, but has an outstanding outcome.

Ingredients
(serves two)

200g penne
half an onion
2 cloves of garlic
200g spinach
125g ricotta
100g cherry tomatoes
two tbsp pine nuts
a tbsp butter
parmesan cheese
truffle oil
salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Fry the pine nuts in a non stick pan until slightly roasted. It should take 1-2 minutes.

2. In the meantime cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Drain and reserve a cup of the cooking water.

3. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the chopped onion and garlic, spinach, cherry tomatoes, cooked pasta and a splash of the pasta cooking water and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring frequently and having seasoned it with salt and pepper. Finally, add the ricotta and cook for another minute.

4. Season with the truffle oil and grate the parmesan on top!