A lot of what I cook is heavily influenced (or a direct copy of…) something my Mum or Nunna cooked for me growing up. This delicious, simple pasta which I almost always have all of the ingredients for is one of those recipes and I make it at least once a month, especially now I have Alexander who absolutely loves it (and it works really well as a side with some penne or spirals for his little pasta-loving belly).

It does contain eggs but if eggs can’t be on the menu at your house for any reason, 'I’d add a littlestock or even cream to the ricotta to loosen it up and a whole lot more pasta water when mixing it through the pasta as an egg-free alternative.

If you can’t go a day without meat, some cooked bacon or prosciutto would work well on top, too.

Mum would make this often when I lived at home (which was over 12 years ago now! Crazy…). It was a kind of go-to when nothing was planned for dinner - ’I’ll just make ricotta pasta’. Now it serves as the kind of two-minute-noodles of my life, even though my hubby still likes actual two minute noodles occasionally (I can take them or leave them, I’ve never understood the fuss!).

It’s quite a heavy pasta dish which is why I don’t use as much spaghetti as I usually do, but feel free to use more.

RICOTTA & PEA PASTA
Serves 2

Ingredients;
- 120g of spaghetti (or your favourite pasta)
- 1/3 of a cup of frozen peas
- 1/3 of a cup of ricotta
- 1/3 of a cup of grated parmesan cheese
- 1 egg, lightly whisked
- Black pepper, to taste.

Method;
1. Cook the pasta with the peas in well salted water as per packet instructions.

2. Meanwhile, mix together the egg, ricotta and parmesan with a generous amount of black pepper (the pepper is optional but particularly delicious in this dish).

3. Drain the pasta, reserving at least half a cup of the cooking water.

4. Return the pasta to the pot and stir the ricotta mixture through with a splash of pasta water. Add more pasta water if needed.

5. Serve immediately topped with extra black pepper.

Maybe this isn’t my two minute noodles, maybe it’s more my mac’n’cheese, though I do still make mac’n’cheese I have to say,

Next time you have ricotta you’re not sure what to do with, give it a go! Super delicious and much quicker than one of my favourite things ever to do with ricotta - make gnocchi (and my almost-3-year-old loves it so hopefully your kids will to!).

Nat x

Prior to working under my own name, I used to go by ‘Healthy Natty’. I say it like it was 100 years ago but I think it was actually, oh, two?

I changed the name not only because I wanted to be taken more seriously as a photographer and not so much a blogger/influencer (I have no problem with these things, and I am guessing you can be both, now), but also because I hated the connotation of the word ‘Healthy’. I’d started sending back recipes ideas that contained sugar or butter for quotes and, occasionally, get replies along the lines of, ‘Oh, I thought you were ‘Healthy’ ?.

Healthy, to me, has always been as simple as listening to your body.

When my body says, ‘Eat loads of pasta with lashings of parmesan and a big glass of delicious red wine’, I never say no.

When, on a day I planned to do some exercise, my body feels tired and it’s extra difficult to get out of bed, I never ignore it. I would never, on that day, force myself out of bed and into the cold for a run.

And when my body says ‘I think I’d like some green veggies now’, I almost always make a version of this…

GREEN SOUP

Ingredients

- 2 x heads of broccoli, roughly chopped
- 1 small bag of frozen peas
- 1 small bag of spinach
- 2 zucchinis, roughly chopped
- 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1-2 tsps of ground cumin
- 1-2 cups of stock (I used vegetable).
- Greek yoghurt or sour cream, fresh herbs, croutons and salt and pepper to serve

Method

Add all of the ingredients, except the yoghurt, to a pot and boil, lid on adding a little water if needed - but not too much as to not make the soup too watery. Sometimes I do this by accident and scoop a little water out before blending it up, but if you keep the pot on and stir regularly the top veggies will steam as the others boil.

Blend it up, season and serve with yoghurt, cream, fresh herbs or as I have here, crumbled mini-toasts in the absence of croutons (I love using left over mini toasts or crackers for this as to not waste them).

Variations
- Fresh herbs like basil, parsley and mint are delicious. I don’t add cumin when using fresh herbs (and with basil a few black olives thrown in is super tasty).
- If you have asparagus, green beans, frozen green veg or even lettuce - throw it in. This is the best soup for those vegetables from 3 weeks ago when you swore you’d eat more green veg… cauli works well, too.
- Parmesan, chilli or lemon (or combined!) stirred through at the end is delicious!

I hope, on those ‘I need more veggies’ days, you find this as nourishing as I do.

And before I leave I want to mention that listening to my body, to me, is not just about the physical but SO much about the mental and emotional. Not just where food is concerned (I truly believe a big bowl of pasta helps both my mental and emotional health, too), but, especially since becoming a Mum and through this insane pandemic, I’ve found it really important to stop listening to what everyone else thinks I should be doing for my health (Face masks! Exercise gently! Read more! Yoga!), and look inside myself for what I need.

Sometimes, what I need, is help figuring what I need out, and that’s OK. But I no longer find it OK to be told, by anyone, what it is I need for my own health.

Does that make sense?

I hope so.

Nat x

Mum's Ricotta & Pea Pasta

GREEN SOUP

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