Lemon Orecchiette with Rosemary...Cottage Cheese
serves 2 – 4 (realistically, depending on how hungry you are)
Orechiette with Lemon, Rosemary, and Cottage CheeseINGREDIENTS
  • 1 1-pound box of orecchiette
  • 1 lemon
  • 2 twigs of fresh rosemary
  • 1 heaping ½ cup of full-fat cottage
  • 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, very cold
METHOD Cook the orecchiette according to package instructions in well-salted water until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water before draining. In the meantime, zest and juice the lemon, and finely chop the rosemary. Stir the lemon zest and rosemary into the cottage cheese. It’s up to you, but I love to drain my cottage cheese in a wide-mesh colander to dry it out a bit. Do that before you stir in the zest and rosemary! In the same pot in which you cooked the pasta, add ½ cup of reserved pasta water and the lemon juice over high heat. Add the butter and whisk constantly until completely melted and incorporated. Takes a minute or two. Shut off the heat immediately, and stir in the pasta. Season with salt if it needs it.  Add more pasta water if it needs it.  Serve with the rosemary cottage cheese on the side, and spoon into the center of each plate of steaming pasta.