An easy, one pot chicken pasta recipe that feels a little bit rustic-fancy thanks to a swirl of whipped ricotta and smattering of sun dried tomato. Pro tip: use the oil from the sun dried tomato to sauté the chicken. Free flavour!
A one pot chicken pasta that’s a little bit (rustic) fancy
Whipped ricotta is a recent revelation for me. I’d seen it around for years, but assumed “whipped” meant dragging out the stand mixer – aka, too much effort for a Tuesday night.
Until my brother rolled his eyes and said, “It’s just ricotta, milk, and parmesan whisked by hand.” And just like that, in 10 seconds, lumpy ricotta turns into something creamy and dreamy – like savoury whipped cream, which then melts when dolloped on hot pasta.
Think of it as a lower fat version of cream. Swirl it through your midweek pasta and all of a sudden, it goes from “yum” to “are we in a trendy trattoria??!”. Definitely moves a quick one-pot pasta recipe into guest-worthy territory!
Actually, whipped ricotta had a starring role in my second cookbook, Tonight, as an easy way to elevate virtually any roasted vegetable to event-worthy (see the handy How to Roast Any Vegetable chart on page 218). I boldly said it would be your “new favourite sauce to create a statement veg side”. I stand by that! 🙂
Here it is with blistered cherry tomatoes in Tonight. Exceptional with roasted carrots, asparagus, broccoli, broccolini, mushrooms – pretty much any roasted vegetable!
Ingredients for Whipped Ricotta One Pot Chicken Pasta
While I’m providing commentary and substitution tips, there’s no need to get too pedantic about the ingredients for this recipe because it’s a reliable, fairly flexible midweeker. If the exactness of ingredients matter for a recipe, you will know! I will harp on and on about it!!
The whipped ricotta
Just ricotta, milk and parmesan for a savoury flavour boost (though I would absolutely make this without).
- Chicken – I like to use boneless thighs as they stay juicier than breast in this form of cooking, where the chicken pieces are cooked with the pasta. But breast or tenderloin will work just fine in this recipe.
- Sun dried tomato – Get the strips in oil. As noted above, we use the oil to cook the chicken – honestly, it adds lovely tomatoey flavour! If you accidentally got whole or tomato halves, have fun chopping….oily…slimy! Been there, done that! I’d still make this recipe if I didn’t have sun dried tomato but I’d add something to compensate. Something briny like chopped olives, capers, chargrilled capsicum or any anti-pasto type thing.
- Canned tomato – I use crushed as it’s already semi broken down so it makes a nicer sauce. Though diced is fine too.
- Tomato paste – For extra tomato flavour boost. I’d still make this if I was out.
- Pasta – I used fusilli (spirals) but anything short and not too big will work. Think, penne, ziti, macaroni, small shells, farfalle (bow ties), casarecce, orecchiette. But not as small as risoni/orzo or as large as rigatoni.
- Garlic and onion – Essential flavour base! Goes a long way with these one-pot pasta recipes.
- Wine – Adds extra depth of flavour into an otherwise simple, quick-cook sauce. Preferably a dry white wine though I don’t hesitate to use leftover flat champagne, rose, red wine. Non alcoholic is an acceptable substitute though don’t go out of your way to get it.
- Chicken stock/broth – The cooking liquid. Better than water. Though, water is actually pretty good too (we tried), just add a tad more salt. I always use low sodium stocks because I like to control the amount of salt myself.
