Pasta with Beans and Ricotta

There are sometimes strange reasons why recipes appeal to me.  This one appealed as it was going to use up my ricotta cheese.  I based it on a Weight Watchers recipe I found on line.  There’s had ricotta cheese, a vegetable, pasta and beans.  It also had marinara sauce which I did not have.  I also realized in looking at it, that it was a recipe for one.  So below is what I made.

Ingredients:

1 oz of Bella Sun Luci Sun Dried Julienne Cut Tomatoes & Herbs (Costco)

10 oz of dried spinach orecchiette pasta

1 C ricotta cheese (mine was whole milk, reduced fat would be better for you.)

1 C asparagus cut in 1” pieces

1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained

Salt and pepper

Dried red pepper flakes

Directions:

1.      Put the pasta water on.  I put about 4T of salt in the water.  When it comes to a boil, add the pasta and mine needed to cook for 15 minutes.  At the 5 minute mark, I added the asparagus to cook. 

2.      I put the ricotta cheese and the sundried tomatoes in the serving bowl and combined them.  Then I put the beans in the dish. 

3.      When the pasta was cooked, I drained it and put it in the bowl.  I mixed it all together and the ricotta makes a sauce.  Add a few T of pasta water.  I added salt, pepper and the red pepper flakes.

I told Jim, I thought cooked garlic or onions would have been a good addition.  He nixed the idea of onions, but I still think that pearl onions cooked in EVOO would have been a great addition.