Orecchiette with tomatoes, courgettes and ricotta

Serves 4

I feel slightly embarrassed to admit that my girls had pasta-making lessons when we were last in Italy. They loved making these "little ears". Here we've used good-quality dried pasta, which works just as well.

400g/13oz dried orecchiette pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
200g/7oz Datterini or cherry tomatoes
2 courgettes, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves
1 chilli, sliced thinly
75g/3oz Parmesan
100g/3½oz baby spinach
100g/3½oz ricotta

Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water until just tender. Reserve about 100ml/3½oz of cooking water before draining the pasta.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium to high heat. Add the tomatoes and courgettes and cook until starting to soften and blister, tossing occasionally. Add the garlic and fry for a further minute or until fragrant.

Add the pasta and the reserved pasta water back to the pan and shake to combine the ingredients. Toss through the chilli and most of the Parmesan before adding the spinach and allowing to wilt slightly.

Serve with big dollops of ricotta, the remaining Parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.