Orecchiette al pesto on whipped lemony ricotta with prosciutto chili breadcrumbs

Having arrived at the 10th volume of this newsletter, I was thinking about what a 10 year old me would have written this week. Italian food has always been a big part of my upbringing. I don’t think my family has Italian heritage, but that never seemed to hinder my dad in his dedication to being a full blown Italian man. Vespa and all. Pesto is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about what my childhood favorites were. I wasn’t a particularly picky eater, gorgonzola has been part of my diet since I had anything to say about what I wanted on my pizza, which, mind you, was the first topic on my agenda when I had the ability to speak. Vegetables, however, were a bit of a problem, and so to get the greens in pesto seemed like a perfect compromise! Virtually a salad if you ask me.

My favorite way to have pesto was with Modena style tortellini filled with ricotta and prosciutto, and so I thought I’d deconstruct that idea into something a little more schmancy, and grown-up if you will. Why? Because art.

Ingredients #

Ingredients for 2 people:

• 200gr Orecchiette
• Two bushy bushes of basil
• 4 garlic cloves
• A handful of pine nuts
• A lemon
• 90gr parmigiano reggiano
• Olive oil
• 125gr Ricotta
• 100gr prosciutto
• A small (personal sized) hard crusty roll, or thick slice of sourdough bread
• 1 teaspoon of chili flakes
• Salt
• Black pepper

Method #

1. Turn your oven up to the max temperature. On a baking sheet with baking paper lay your prosciutto and crumble up your bread. No need to preheat the oven for this, you can just pop it in and keep an eye out for it. Bake this in the oven until your prosciutto is crispy, for me this took about 15 minutes.

2. When your bread and prosciutto is ready, add your crispy goodness to the bowl of a food processor and blend it until it has reached a nice and crumbly consistency. You’ll want it rather fine. Put it in a bowl aside for now.

3. Bring a large pot with salted water to a boil and cook your Orecchiette according to the package instructions.

4. In the meantime, add ricotta and the zest of the lemon to your now empty food processor or if you have one, immersion blender. Whip this until it’s nice and smooth, and season with salt and pepper. Add this to a bowl and set aside for now.

5. Rinse your food processor or immersion blender, and add your basil, 2 garlic cloves, pine nuts, the juice of half a lemon, parmesan cheese (grated or chopped finely) and 175ml olive oil. Blend this together until smooth and adjust for seasoning, I find that it often needs QUITE a bit of salt.

6. Right before your pasta is done cooking, add your breadcrumb mixture to a skillet with some olive oil, chili flakes, your remaining 2 garlic cloves minced and a pinch of salt and fry it, tossing every now and then, to ensure absolute crisp-city.

7. Drain your pasta when ready, making sure to reserve some pasta water, and stir the pesto through the pasta together with some freshly ground black pepper. Adjust for seasoning and get ready to plate!

8. On your plate add a nice swirl of your whipped ricotta, followed by a mountain of greeny-goodness pasta, and top your creation with the crispy breadcrumbs! Have not snacked-up the remainder of your parmesan while you cooked? Mad respect, feel free to add some on top.

The amount of breadcrumbs this recipe makes is probably more than you’ll need for two servings. Pro-tip: I pretended they were cereal and ate them with a spoon for breakfast the next day. Highly encourage you to do the same. For the ones in doubt: of course NOT with milk you animal.