Playing around with pasta

I had a lot of ricotta cheese leftover from the Cassata cake, so of course, pasta came to mind.  I also had a bag of spinach I needed to use.  Hmmm.

We had lasagna last night and I wanted to stay away from marinara, so I experimented between making a low fat alfredo sauce and a bechamel...

I needed to bring lots flavor to the dish since I didn't want to use butter or a lot of oil.  The nutmeg gives it a nice touch and of course, lots of garlic always helps :)  I'm definitely going to use this in lasagna soon...it would work really well.

This took about 15 minutes to make...can't beat it for a healthy and easy weeknight meal!

Rotini with Spinach and Ricotta
1 box rotini pasta (Dreamfield, as usual)

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

5 garlic cloves, minced

1 bag (6 oz) fresh spinach
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper 

1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese

3/4 cup skim milk

1 tablespoon thyme

2 teaspoons nutmeg

pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Meanwhile, add oil to a hot dutch oven, followed by garlic and crushed red pepper.  Add spinach and cook until wilted.  Turn off the heat.

Drain pasta and add it to the spinach.  Return the pasta pot to the stove.  Combine ricotta, milk, thyme, nutmeg and pepper.  Whisk until heated through, about 2 minutes.  Pour cheese mixture into the other pot, and stir until everything is combined.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4
WW Points Plus = 10 (which would lower drastically if using lowfat or nonfat ricotta...next time that's what I'll do)