Pasta with Roasted Beetroot, a Walnut Pesto and Ricotta

Serves 3-4

I’m so pleased with this invention I had to share it with you. This was the vegetarian pasta dish I served at an Italian-themed dinner party recently. I was serving an ox cheek ragù to the meat eaters and wanted a dish that could stand up to it.

Roasting the beetroot gives it a beautiful sweetness to complement its earthiness. The soft ricotta gives bursts of creaminess whilst the walnut pesto lightly coats the pasta and brings everything together.

Whist this is a vegetarian dish, it can easily be made vegan by omitting the cheese elements, and gluten-free by using suitable pasta. You can roast the beetroot and make the pesto ahead of time, so you only need a short amount of time to cook the pasta and bring the dish together just before serving (step 5 onwards).

I’d not served a pink pasta dish before, but it went down well! Even the carnivores wanted to try some!

• Ingredients:

• For the roasted beetroot:
• 1 tbsp oil (olive or rapeseed are best)
• 4 beetroot, topped and tailed, cleaned, halved and cut in to wedges (8-10 per beetroot)
• 1 sprig of rosemary, finely chopped
• Pinch each of salt and pepper

• For the walnut pesto:
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 75g walnuts, toasted
• 75g pecorino or parmesan, crumbled/roughly chopped
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• Pinch each of salt and pepper

• For the pasta dish:
• 300g spaghetti
• Oil
• 150g ricotta
• Parmesan/pecorino

Step 1: Toss the ingredients for the roasted beetroot together (be careful as your fingers may stain pink!) and spread on a baking sheet (I lined mine with baking parchment as I wanted to stop the beetroot from sticking).

Step 2: Roast in a preheated oven at 180c for 50-60 minutes.

Step 3: Remove and leave to one side.

Step 4: Make the pesto (you can do this whilst the beetroot is roasting). Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or pestle and mortar and blitz/pound together. This will make more than you need (I froze the extra in little pots). I used two cloves of garlic and on tasting it had a real heat from the raw garlic, but this mellows in the cooking stage.

Step 5: Cook your pasta according to the packet instructions.

Step 6: Heat a frying pan on a medium-low heat. Add some oil (olive or rapeseed are best) and about half of the pesto and the roasted beetroot. Stir frequently for a couple of minutes.

Step 7: Add the drained pasta (reserving a little of the cooking water) and toss together, adding a little cooking water to loosen as required.

Step 8: Serve with the fresh ricotta (use a teaspoon to drop little pieces over the pasta) and offer grated parmesan or pecorino at the table.