Let’s be honest. Pasta is often a go to weeknight dinner because it’s easy, inexpensive, and cooks quickly. But it can be boring too.

So, if you’re looking for a new recipes, check out our long list of budget-friendly pasta recipes. They will definitely inspire your next meal.

Lemon Ricotta Pasta Recipe

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Lemon ricotta pasta ingredients:

You can get the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.

• Pasta – I like fettuccine noodles or linguine because the thicker pasta holds a lot of the sauce so you get a lot of the lemon flavor when you eat it. You could use any pasta, including something like a penne which has ridges to hold the sauce, but I don’t feel like that holds the sauce as well as a thick noodle does.
• Ricotta cheese – Whole milk ricotta cheese gives this a much more robust flavor than part-skim ricotta cheese does.
• Lemon – Look for the largest fresh lemon at the grocery store. Since you’re zesting the rind, you may want to look for an organic lemon because the outside is less waxy.
• Parmesan cheese – We use the grated parmesan/Reggiano mix in the plastic container because it’s budget friendly.
• Seasoning – We use salt to bring out the flavor and lemon pepper seasoning because it makes sense. Pete likes to add a crack of fresh black pepper on top of his.

How To Make Lemon Ricotta Pasta:

Start by boiling your pasta according to the package’s directions.

If you like your pasta al dente, you’ll want to cook it one minute less. Personally, I love a softer texture, so I cook it the full amount of time.

Usually when I do a pasta dish, I boil the pasta in a large stock pot. But, when I’m making a recipe like this, I boil it in the Dutch oven.

Then, I build the sauce in the Dutch oven because it retains heat and cooks the sauce evenly. So, boiling the pasta in the Dutch oven first allows us to just use one pot for this meal.

Of course, if you need to save on time, you can boil the pasta in a large pot of salted water and build the sauce in another stockpot. That just means an extra pot to wash after dinner.

Make sure to reserve a cup of pasta water before draining the pasta. You’ll need this later.

Add the ricotta cheese into a medium sized mixing bowl.

Mix the ricotta up a little bit.

When ricotta cheese comes out of the container, it has a film around the outside. So, you want to mix this just enough to get that film incorporated into the cheese before adding the other ingredients. If you don’t do this, they’ll slip off and won’t evenly season the cheese.

Zest the lemon into the cheese using a microplane.

Be careful to only zest the yellow portion of the lemon. The white portion, which is called the pith, is bitter and you don’t want that bitterness in your sauce. You just want the brightness from the lemon zest.

Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the ricotta cheese.

Quick note: Anytime we add fresh citrus into a recipe, I gave you Pete’s hack. So here it is.

Microwave the lemon for 15 seconds.

Take it out and forcefully roll it on the countertop to break up the inside.

This makes the lemon so much easier to squeeze and gets out so much more fresh lemon juice, so you can get away with using less lemons if you use his hack.

You want to do this before you zest the lemon into the cheese.

Add the seasoning to the bowl.

Add in the Parmesan cheese.

Stir until combined.

Heat the Dutch oven over medium heat on the stove.

Add the ricotta mixture.

Add in half a cup of the reserved pasta water.

Cook the sauce for about 10 minutes until it thins out to an Alfredo-like consistency.

If the sauce is too thick, you can add more of the pasta water to thin it.

Put the cooked pasta back into the Dutch oven with the sauce and toss until coated.

Since the pasta is cooking just a little longer now, that’s why you can get away with cooking it al dente.

Serve with a lemon wedge and a sprinkle of Parmesan on top.

This goes great with garlic bread and a side of roasted broccoli.

Lemon Ricotta Pasta: Frequently Asked Questions