Lemon-Beet Sauce and Fusilli 

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Lemon-y pasta is the perfect “yay, warm weather” dinner. It’s bright, zingy, and lends itself well to al fresco dining. 

Today, we’ve got an unbeetable addition to your lemon pasta recipe repertoire: Lemon-Beet Sauce and Fusilli with Peas and Poppy Seeds from Cara Mangini’s new book The Vegetable Eater: The New Playbook for Cooking Vegetarian. 

She describes this dish as “an homage to the celebrated beet- and ricotta-stuffed ravioli with butter sauce and poppy seeds from the venerable Al Di La Trattoria in Park Slope, Brooklyn.” 

Despite its fine-dining inspiration, this recipe is actually quite simple to make. Roasting the beets takes the most time, but it’s pretty hands-off. If you’re short on time, you can use 1 to 1 1/4 pounds precooked and peeled beets instead. (Saves you a bit of mess, too.) 

The beets and the ricotta make for a velvety sauce. Not only do beets add a lovely color and texture to the sauce, they also pack in the nutritional benefits. They’re loaded with vitamins and minerals—like folate, copper, and potassium—and other good-for-you nutrients like fiber and antioxidants. Ricotta cheese is high in protein and calcium. (Plus, it contains all nine essential amino acids.) 

The richness of the sauce is balanced by the brightness of the fresh lemon, arugula, chives, and peas. 

Get the full recipe below. 

Lemon-Beet Sauce and Fusilli with Peas and Poppy Seeds

Ingredients: 

Sauce
About 1 3/4 pounds beets, scrubbed and
trimmed 
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice plus 1 teaspoon finely grated
lemon zest
1 cup whole-milk or cashew-milk ricotta cheese

Pasta 
2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
3/4 pound fusilli or other twisty or tube-shaped pasta
3/4 to 1 cup frozen or fresh shelled peas (optional)
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
2 packed cups of baby arugula
Finely grated Parmesan or Pecorino
Romano cheese, for topping (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Instructions:

Roasted Beets 
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F with a rack in the center. 
2. Wrap like-size beets in foil packets (wrap extra-large beets individually). 
3. Place the unpeeled garlic and one tablespoon of oil in the center of a small piece of foil, and fold up the foil to seal it. 
4. Place the beets and garlic on a sheet pan, and roast until the garlic is soft, light golden, and fragrant, about 15 minutes. 
5. Remove the garlic packet from the oven, and allow the garlic and oil to cool. 
6. Continue to roast the beets until they are tender through the middle (a paring knife should pierce the center without resistance), 60 to 75 minutes for medium-to-large beets, up to 90 minutes for extra-large beets. 
7. Make the sauce (instructions below).

Sauce
1. When the beets are cool enough to handle, trim the tops off, and use your hands to rub off the skins. 
2. Quarter the beets and place them in a high-speed blender (preferred for the smoothest texture) or a food processor. 
3. Peel and trim the roasted garlic cloves and add them along with the garlic oil to the blender. 
4. Pulse or process the beets until they are coarsely broken down, about eight times. 
5. Add the two remaining tablespoons of oil, the salt, and the lemon juice, and blend until smooth, about 30 seconds. 
6. Add the ricotta and blend again until well incorporated and completely smooth, another 20 seconds.
7. Divide the sauce into two equal portions and set one aside to store in the fridge or freezer.
8. Make the pasta (instructions below). 

Pasta
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and generously salt it so it tastes like the sea. 
2. Cook the pasta until about two minutes under al dente according to the package instructions—you want it to retain some toothsomeness. (Do not overcook the pasta!)
3. Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium heat until it foams. 
4. Add the poppy seeds and lemon zest and cook, carefully tilting and swirling the pan to toast the poppy seeds and ever so slightly lightly brown the butter in places, 30 to 60 seconds. Set aside on the stove but off the heat.
5. Set a colander inside a serving bowl (or a mixing bowl), and use a spider to drain the pasta into the colander and continue to boil the water. 
6. Reserve one cup of the pasta cooking water. 
7. Add the peas, if using, to the boiling water, and cook for 60 to 90 seconds until warmed through. 
8. Use the spider to transfer the peas to a small bowl.
9. Drain the pot and return it to the stove over medium-low heat. 
10. Put the pasta in the pot with 1/4 cup of the reserved cooking water and stir to combine.
11. Add the beet sauce, and stir until evenly combined and warmed through. 
12. Add more pasta water to loosen the sauce if you wish, and stir in half the peas and one tablespoon of chives.
13. Dry the serving bowl, if necessary, and transfer the pasta to it. 
14. Top the pasta with the remaining peas. 
15. Drizzle the melted butter mixture over the pasta and top with the remaining chives, then the arugula. 
16. Top with the Parmesan and pepper if you wish. 
17. Serve immediately.

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