This 20-minute creamy Lemon Ricotta Pasta with Peas is guaranteed to spice up your spring menu. With a custardy sauce, bright lemon, chunks of crispy pancetta, and perfectly cooked green peas, this pasta is an impressive yet quick main dish!
This recipe was originally published on February 9, 2021. It was updated with new recipe information on February 20, 2024.
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This easy lemon pasta recipe took me many tries (4 or 5 at my last count) to develop but the result is so worth it. A smooth and creamy lemon ricotta sauce covers tender noodles and is studded with rich and chewy pancetta and tender green peas for a daydream-worthy dish!
With a cooking technique similar to pasta carbonara, this dish calls for tossing hot pasta with cooked sausage (in our case, pancetta), whisked eggs, and cheese. For this easy lemon ricotta pasta, I also added ricotta, lemon zest, and juice for a different flavor and texture.
So, treat your family to this pasta dish for your next Sunday dinner, whip up a batch for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner, or treat yourself to a bowl tonight. A little extra love -- in any form -- is never a bad thing, huh?
Looking for more recipes with ricotta cheese? Try my Cheesy Baked Italian Sausage Pasta or Zucchini Lasagna next!
Why You Will Love This Creamy Lemon Pasta Recipe
- Guaranteed Crowd Pleaser: This quick and easy pasta tossed in a light and creamy lemon sauce creates a lemon ricotta pasta that will have everyone asking for seconds!
- Homemade But Restaurant Quality: If you're looking for an impressive restaurant-grade pasta dish you can make at home, I have you covered today with this Lemon Ricotta Pasta with Peas Recipe! Perfect for dinner parties and impressing loved ones.
- Hits all the High Points. It’s custardy, creamy, bright, and lemony! It’s truly impressive and delicious but won’t take you forever to prepare.
- Easy Dinner. Using less than 10 ingredients and only 20 minutes to make, it doesn’t get any easier than this!
Ingredients
This recipe is the best as-is, so do your best to grab all of the ingredients as directed (I promise it will be worth it!).
- Pasta: The lemon ricotta pasta sauce works the best with long-shaped pasta like linguine, spaghetti, fettuccine, or bucatini. It clings perfectly to the smooth sides of the pasta so you get creamy deliciousness in each bite.
- Pancetta: Cubed pancetta is best but if you can’t find it you can use the same amount of guanciale sausage cut into cubes or ¼" slices of uncured bacon.
- Frozen green peas: This freezer staple makes this dish easier and adds a lovely splash of color. Even better, the creamy lemon sauce meshes with the flavors of green peas perfectly.
- Whole milk ricotta cheese: It’s the extra fat of the whole milk ricotta that gives us a luscious sauce. You will not get the same results with part-skim ricotta because it lacks flavor and mouthfeel, greatly affecting the flavor of this dish
- Large eggs: The eggs help the fat from the pancetta bind to the sauce making it silky and creamy.
- Grated parmesan cheese: Added for flavor and cheesiness. You can use other sharp Italian cheeses such as pecorino or Romano, both of which have a slightly sharper flavor, however.
- Lemon juice & zest: Lemon juice balances the sauce by adding a bit of acid and the zest adds a more intense citrus flavor without making it overly acidic. Be sure when you zest the lemon you only get the yellow part and not the white flesh underneath. It’s quite bitter so try to avoid grating any of it.
- Salt: Essential in this simple recipe to bring everything together, enhancing the flavors.
Substitutions and Variations
- Vegetarian: Simply leave out the pancetta to make this dish vegetarian-friendly, cooking the peas in 2 ½ tablespoons olive oil and seasoning with a ½ teaspoon of salt instead.
- Gluten-free: Swap in gluten-free rice or chickpea noodles for the traditional wheat noodles and this recipe will be gluten-free.
- Swap the Peas: You can easily make this into a lemon ricotta spinach pasta by using spinach instead of peas. Arugula or even kale would work too.
- Lemon Ricotta Chicken Pasta: Top your bowl of pasta with these slices of panko chicken or air fryer chicken bites.
- Lemon Ricotta Shrimp Pasta: Add grilled or sauteed shrimp to the top of your lemon parmesan pasta.
- Lemon Ricotta Zucchini Pasta: Swap the noodles for zucchini noodles or replace the peas with tender zucchini.
How to Make Lemon Ricotta Pasta
Pro-Tip: The key is to line up the pasta cooking time with the pancetta and peas cooking time so they're both hot when you toss them together!
For exact recipe measurements and the entire recipe, jump to the recipe card at the bottom of this post!
Step 1: Whisk together the eggs, parmesan cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and ricotta in a medium-sized mixing bowl until combined.
Step 2: Boil the pasta in heavily salted water according to package directions. Drain the pasta when it is al dente (that is, tender and cooked through, but still firm to the bite).
Step 3: Saute the pancetta and peas together over medium heat until the pancetta is cooked through and golden.
Pro-Tip: Start cooking this step when the pasta has been cooking for a few minutes.
Step 4: Add the hot drained pasta to the pancetta pan with the heat still on the pan. Toss the pasta with the peas until combined.
Step 5: Add the ricotta sauce to the pasta and turn the heat off immediately. Toss the pasta in the sauce briskly until the sauce has thickened and is custardy.
PRO TIP: It’s key to work quickly once you’ve drained the pasta as the pasta needs to be hot when you add the egg mixture to it.
More Recipe Pro-Tips
- Salting the Pasta Water. Make sure it’s heavily salted water so that it adds flavor to the noodles as they cook. You want at least 1 tablespoon of salt for every 2 quarts of water.
- Pasta Texture. Boil in water just to al dente. We want it cooked through and tender but still firm to the bite. The pasta will absorb the liquid of the sauce when we toss it together so we don't want it to get mushy.
- Timing is Key. It’s important to time your pasta and pancetta to finish at the same time. You will get the best results when the pasta and the pancetta are piping hot when tossed together. Start cooking the pancetta a few minutes into the pasta's cooking time.
- Work Quickly. This dish goes together quickly. Be sure to read through the instructions before you start cooking and have everything assembled so you can easily grab it.
- Serve Immediately. This pasta is the best hot and fresh so tray it up as soon as the sauce has thickened up. This means you might also want to have your side dishes prepared in advance.
Serving Suggestions
This ricotta cheese pasta is beyond delicious on its own, but you can also serve it with the dishes for a more complete meal. Here are some suggestions to consider:
- More Protein: Enjoy this spaghetti with ricotta sauce with roasted or Air Fryer Salmon, carved ham, Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin, or Chicken Sausage Meatballs as the main course.
- More Veggies: Blistered Green Beans and Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts make great side dishes for serving.
- Add a Salad: Try this Burrata Salad with Roasted Tomatoes or Orange Salad.
- Bread: A perfect side dish so you can scoop up every last bit of the creamy ricotta sauce for pasta. Air Fryer Garlic Bread or these No-Yeast Dinner Rolls are perfect!
Storage Directions
Leftovers last covered in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. This recipe is best hot off the stovetop, however, so I recommend enjoying it best fresh. You may want to consider halving the recipe if the full one is too much.
Pasta leftovers do not freeze well, unfortunately.
FAQs
No, they do not. If you have hot pasta, hot pancetta and peas, and turn the heat of the pan off just before you add the ricotta sauce, the residual heat of the pan combined with the hot pasta and pancetta grease will cook the eggs. You do not need to keep the heat on the pan, as doing so will cause the eggs to scramble and the sauce to split.
Using a lemon zester tool or microplane, gently rub the grating surface across the lemon peel. Be careful to only zest off the top yellos layer of the peel, as the white layer underneath is bitter.
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Tools Needed to Make This Recipe
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Citrus juicer
- Microplane/Lemon zester
- Whisk
- Medium-size mixing bowl
- Large stockpot or dutch oven
- Large skillet (preferably non-stick)
- Colander
- Pasta scooper
- Heat safe spatula or silicone spatula
More Pasta Recipes
- Pesto Gnocchi
- Garlic Angel Hair Pasta
- No Boil Pasta Bake with Turkey
- Italian Sausage and Peppers Pasta
- Turkey Bolognese
- Chicken Bolognese
- Baked Italian Sausage Casserole with Ricotta Cheese
- Instant Pot Beef Bolognese
If you made and liked this recipe, don't forget to rate the recipe and let me know how it went for you in the comments! It always makes my day to hear from you!
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