Mmmmm its the middle of Spring, or well almost Summer, here in Austin but I’ve been craving pasta. Especially creamy delicious hearty pasta.
Plus, I had a ton of cheese leftover from the really big pizza party last week that needed to get eaten. This creamy veggie pasta is definitely inspired by traditional Pasta Carbonara except I did not use heavy cream or bacon… gasp. Peas and mushrooms and ricotta… mmmm.
You’ll need:
Angel hair pasta
1 cup ricotta
1/2 cup of grated romano cheese
3 eggs
1/2 bushel of green onions
1/2 cup of sliced mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic
3/4 cup frozen peas
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
Grate the romano cheese and set aside.
In a medium-sized pot, bring salted water to a boil and add the angel hair pasta. This should cook more quickly than other types of noodles.
Mince up the garlic.
Dice up the mushrooms and green onions and set aside.
Add about a cup of ricotta cheese to a mixing bowl.
Add 3 eggs to the ricotta.
Whisk that all together until mostly smooth. There may be a few small curds (lumps) but that’s ok.
All mixed up!
Add a few twists of fresh cracked black pepper.
Add a few shakes of red pepper flakes if you like.
Mix that all up and set aside.
Remember these guys? Add the mushrooms and green onions to a skillet with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Saute these for 2-3 minutes.
After the mushrooms and onions begin to soften, add about 3/4 cup of frozen peas. Stir that up.
Now stir in the minced garlic.
Saute all of this together for another 2-3 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft and the peas are hot but not too mushy.
Now its time to drain your angel hair pasta. Save a little pasta water in case the sauce is too thick. I wound up not using this but it is good to have just in case.
After draining the angel hair, combine the pasta with the veggies in the pot.
Now time to add the creamy ricotta sauce!
Fold the sauce into the pasta quickly but gently. Be sure to turn the heat off while doing this. The eggs in the sauce can begin to cook. The sauce may curd a little, making some tiny lumps, that is ok but we do not want the sauce to become too lumpy.
Don’t forget to add the grated romano cheese! Stir the romano in, it should melt quickly. Now you are ready to serve!
Little bowl of love.
Of course I added a little extra romano, red pepper flakes and black pepper to my bowl!
Enjoy!
My attempt at using Photoshop to edit my photos… what do y’all think?
I love this recipe, I’m going to run out to the store and try it out because it has all my favorite ingredients in there, peas mushrooms, pasta, yum! Thank you for the vegetarian version!