WW Pasta with Lemon Cream

The weekend in Chicago was great. Great in more ways than one; visiting friends, going to the zoo, the field museum, Millennium Park, the Celtic festival, road tripping to Notre Dame.

It really was wonderful; it also was a complete gorge fest on the local cuisine. Thursday night we went to little Italy for dinner, we had fresh bread smothered in roasted garlic and olive oil, then proceeded to have three more courses on top of that consisting of pear raviolis, gnocchi with gorgonzola, seafood salad and of course a bottle of red wine. Not to leave out dessert, we also had a great tiramisu.

No trip to Chicago is complete without deep dish pizza. Friday we headed to the original Gino's for deep dish spinach pizza...mmmm. Friday night still semi full from the deep dish pizza, we headed to Greektown for another three course meal, starting with saganaki (fried cheese) and spicy feta, then moving on the eggplant in a bechamel sauce, and finished with baklava...oh, yeah, throw a few bottles of wine in there too, did I mention there was bread as well.

Saturday morning, we got in the car and headed to Indiana to tailgate for the Notre Dame game. We walked around the campus for a while, then settled in and tailgated for about 3 hours...you know what kind of food and drink is involved in tailgating. I don't need to explain that it wasn't in the least bit healthy.

Sunday, our stomach almost stretched to capacity we went to a southern inspired breakfast place...jambalaya omelets.

Needless to say, I came home feeling a little thick around the middle, so I decided to make a weigh watchers meal for dinner. I won't lie; it tastes like a low fat meal. In order to make this meal again, I would really need to add the juice and zest of at least one more lemon, and possibly some parsley and other herbs to give it more flavor. Served hot with a little salt and pepper, it really wasn't that bad, but CB wanted something with a little more flavor and substance. I thought it was a little bland, but after all that rich food, I actually welcomed the simple pasta dish for dinner, and at only 3 WW points per serving it really was good for someone looking to cut calories and fat in a simple easy to prepare meal.

15 ounces lowfat ricotta cheese
dash salt
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp nutmeg
4 cups cooked pasta

Empty ricotta into blender or food processor, using the steel blade. Add salt. Process until all graininess disappears and ricotta has the texture of thick whipped cream. Flavor the mixture with lemon peel and nutmeg. Store in refrigerator. Drain the hot cooked pasta, then immediately return it to the saucepan it was cooked in. Add the whipped ricotta. Toss until pasta is well coated with the sauce. Can garnish with parmesan, fresh parsley or a few thin slices of pitted black olives.