Fusilli with Rocket and Ricotta

At a recent Pasta master class, this amazing vegetarian pasta dish was served up by the cute Italian chef and it was a taste explosion everyone raved about. A gorgeous warm fusilli pasta salad with just the right amount of everything.

Ingredients

A 500g box of Fusilli Pasta (we love Barilla)
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Small bunch of fresh basil leaves, washed and torn
1 spring onion, sliced
1 punnet cherry tomatoes
1 celery stick, thinly sliced
2 handfuls of rocket leaves
Half a jar of Barilla Ricotta Sauce
100g ricotta, feta or pecorino cheese, grated, for serving
Extra touch of olive oil for drizzling prior to serving
Salt and Pepper
50g rock salt (for the 5L of pasta water)

Method

1. In a large bowl, place olive oil, basil leaves, spring onion, celery, quartered cherry tomatoes and half the rocket leaves. Stir, season and set aside. Ideally do this overnight or at least 30 minutes to get the ingredients all infusing together.

2. Bring 5L litres of water to the boil.

3. When the water is boiling, add the rock salt (10g for every 1 litre of water is the rule with pasta).

4. Drop the fusilli pasta into your boiling water and stir regularly and cook 8-10 minutes, as per the packet directions.

5. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add to your olive oil, tomatoes, green mixture. Toss.

6. Add the ricotta sauce and stir well to combine.

7. Add last half of fresh rocket and the grated cheese(s) and toss. Drizzle with olive oil and serve. A true Italian taste explosion. Delissimo.