This recipe Orecchiette with Creamy Basil Blue Cheese Sauce is quick to make. It will offer a surprisingly creamy and light pasta dish that is worth trying. When you’re not a blue cheese lover, try this recipe nevertheless, you may be converting to enjoying it.
Often recipes are categorized by country from which recipe derived, flavor, ingredients used, seasonality, cooking method, level of difficulty and time it takes to prepare. I am sure there is more to add to this list. This particular recipe will fall into the category ‘super-simple-super-fast’.
You’ll toast the pine nuts, while cooking the pasta and at the same time, you’ll make the sauce in your food processor or with an immersion mixer. As soon as the pasta is done cooking, you’ll mix it with the sauce; warm it just a little and then serve. Sprinkle with pine nuts and basil and your meal is ready. It is that simple, that fast. So if you pick a pasta that needs 8 minutes to cook, your Orecchiette with Creamy Basil Blue Cheese Sauce will be ready in 10, from the time the water boils (2 minutes to warm the sauce).
This sauce will be a surprise; creamy and not very blue cheesy. I know there are a lot of people who don’t like blue cheese. A complete bummer for me, there are so many fantastic blue cheeses. I always wonder how you can say “I don’t like blue cheese”. It’s like saying that you don’t like cheddar. There are so many varieties, so many flavor, textures, aromas that there must be a way to get you to learn to eat blue cheese, a way to wean you onto this fantastic cheese group. It sound like I am a blue cheese maker, trying to convince you to eat my product – I am not, just a blue cheese lover.
I used orecchiette for the recipe, but any other pasta will do. As far as other ingredients are concerned; I usually pick the low fat version for dairy products, so low fat yogurt and low fat ricotta cheese. I personally don’t taste a difference between the full cream version in recipes like this Orecchiette with Creamy Basil Blue Cheese Sauce.
As far as the blue cheese is concerned: I would recommend to us a sharp one, like Roquefort, Danish Blue, Buttermilk Blue, the combination of the ricotta and the sharp blue flavor is just absolutely wonderful. Because you can also use the sauce cold, this recipe is also a great lunch option. It’s not heavy, so you won’t have a 3 p.m. dip.
Try and enjoy!
Orecchiette with Creamy Basil Blue Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 ounes orecchiette pasta
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 cup basil leaves
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 1/2 cup blue cheese sharp and crumbled
- 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- 4 whole basil leaves cut in strips
Instructions
- Toast the pine nuts, by spreading them on a baking sheet and place them in a cold oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once the oven reached its temperature, turn it off and take the nuts out of the oven. If you do this for the first time, please keep an eye on the color of the nuts; every oven has it own settings, temperatures and not the same and heating times may differ.
- Bring water and salt to a boil and add the pasta. Cook the pasta according to directions on the packaging.
- Peel the garlic and place it in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the basil leaves, ricotta cheese, yogurt, blue cheese crumbles, sherry vinegar and pepper. Pulse until smooth. You can also use an immersion mixer.
- Drain the pasta, return to pan, add the sauce and warm for a few minutes.
- Divide pasta over 2 plates, and sprinkle with basil and pine nuts.
No Comments