Pasta with peas, bacon and ricotta sauce | Marcella Hazan Italian recipe (VIDEO)

Marcella Hazan was one of the most prolific and knowledgeable cooks in America. She brought Italian cuisine to the masses and showed the world how simple and tasty, good Italian food was. She holds a special place in my heart because of her tenacity to learn, and that she was a self taught cook, not a chef. I thought I would do something a bit different today, and cook one of her recipes from her book ‘Essentials of classic Italian cooking’.

Today I made peas, bacon and ricotta sauce. The word sauce should be used lightly, as it’s not really a sauce at all, but more of an amalgamation of lovely things. I think if I made this again, I would add a touch of the pasta cooking water to loosen it up a touch. That being said, it’s a very refreshing, light and tasty dish. This recipe is perfect for those on a tight budget, as pasta costs nowt, neither do peas or bacon really. The ricotta was a quid for a whole tub from my local market. Incidentally, I popped in to a supermarket for some other bits and bobs, and noticed that their ricotta was less in weight and almost double the price! It pays to visit your market, people.

The pasta of choice is conchiglie, which is the shell shaped pasta. It seems to hold the sauce better, and as Marcella said herself ‘for the deftness with which its hollows catch the sauce’. Other pasta varieties can be used, such as rigatoni or perhaps penne.
Marcella was a magnanimous, sharp woman. I never got to meet her, but I am certain that I would have spent hours talking to her about food.

To make Marcella’s peas & bacon with ricotta sauce you will need:
►450g of shell on peas or 140g of frozen peas thawed
►115g of lean back bacon
►115g of fresh ricotta
►450g of conchiglie pasta or something similar
►15g of butter
►6 tbsp of freshly grated parmesan cheese
►Salt & pepper
►A little oil for cooking the bacon