Jamie's Pasta with Sweet Tomato Sauce and Baked Ricotta

I have a big, fat crush on Jamie Oliver and it’s been going on for some time. His recent show Food Revolution on ABC was outstanding, his TED Talk rocked my world and his cookbooks are filled with gorgeous food photography, personal notes and even gardening tips. I currently own three of his cookbooks (Jamie At Home, Jamie’s America and Jamie’s Dinners) but I have a confession… I’ve never cooked a single thing from his cookbooks! I know, I know… I can hear the gasps.

Here’s the thing… I find his food rather unapproachable. Weird, right?! Jamie’s whole philosophy is fresh, seasonal, quality food. Nothing about that should be scary! Oh but it is! I will sit on the couch and thumb through his cookbooks over and over again but never have I been inspired to get up off the couch and put a recipe to use.

This month’s cookbook, Jamie’s Dinners, was all I needed as a catapult to challenge my fear of Jamie’s recipes. Lucky for me, when we were up in Portland spending time with Tempa and Jim I found a used copy of Jamie’s Dinners at Powell’s Bookstore, I took it as a sign. I decided to take it slow; I started with something I thought we could potentially adopt into our normal repertoire of dinners: Pasta with Sweet Tomato Sauce and Baked Ricotta (pg. 187).

I had a little hesitancy with the ricotta. It’s not one of my favorite flavors or textures but alas, I married an Italian so I feel obliged to give it a chance to grow on me. I loved the idea of baking it first before adding it to the pasta. It ended up mostly melting into a pool of cheesiness instead of turning “…golden and firm” however. San Marzano tomatoes were my splurge for the tomato sauce and adding the balsamic vinegar added some really nice sweetness and depth but I wasn’t very impressed with the sauce as a whole. Chris loved this dish (I think it just brought up memories of his Grandma’s cooking!) I’d give it a 3/5… don’t know if I’d make it again. It was easy enough to make after a long day of work, which is always much appreciated.


They say you are more likely to accomplish goals if you write them down so... I want to continue to cook AND post from Jamie’s Dinners in hopes I overcome my irrational fear of his “unapproachable” recipes.

annamarie