My Red-Eye Recovery: Pasta with Peas, Ricotta & Pancetta

There’s nothing like being stuck in a plane, waiting on the runway at JFK airport for 4 hours. There’s also nothing like landing at Sea-Tac airport at 3:30am on a Monday, 5 hours after you originally planned…knowing that you have to be in the office in 5 hours. Let’s just say that when it came to making dinner on Monday night, I wanted to make something *really* easy and delicious.

Why not just order food and take the night off from the kitchen? As much as I love to cook, I recognize the value of delivery pizza and take out Chinese food. But, I had just spent 8 days in New York, and that meant eating out for every meal. There comes a time when all you are craving is something homemade…even if that means being half asleep while cooking.

I avoided anything too ambitious, and decided that pasta was a safe start. I came across a recipe on Everyday Food that had a delicious combination of sugar snap peas, petite peas, ricotta, and tarragon (one of my favorite herbs). I was eager to use ricotta cheese in a dish other than lasagna; perhaps it’s underused these days? This recipe seemed simple enough to make, even in my zombie-like state of mind. I modified the recipe by adding pancetta and garlic to give some more depth in flavor and lemon zest to lighten up the ricotta sauce. Also, I topped off the dish with some parmigiano-reggiano cheese to give it a nice salty finish.
Pasta with Peas, Ricotta & Pancetta
Serves 4

1/4 pound pancetta, cut into bite size pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
12 ounces gemelli, campanelle,or other short pasta
12 ounces sugar snap peas, stem ends removed
10 ounces frozen petite peas
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated
Zest of 2 lemons
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

1. In a large skillet at medium heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add pancetta and cook until crispy and golden. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and add minced garlic. Let garlic cook for a few minutes, watching closely to avoid burning. Remove skillet from heat and set aside.

2. Fill a large pot with water. Add 1 tablespoon salt and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Bring water to a boil, and add pasta. Cook until pasta is close to al dente, but not quite done.

3. To the boiling water, add snap peas and cook for no more than 2 minutes. Add petite peas and cook for an additional minute. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water; set aside. Drain pasta peas.

4. Add pasta and peas to the large skillet with the pancetta and garlic. Add butter, tarragon, lemon zest, and ricotta. If the sauce is too thick due to the ricotta, add the reserved pasta water until you have a thin sauce that lightly coats the pasta. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Garnish with chopped tarragon, lemon zest, and parmagiano-reggiano cheese. Serve immediately.