1. Make yellow pasta dough. Cut the dough into rectangular strips about 3 1/2 inches wide and 5 inches long. spread them out on a counter lined with clean, dry cloth towels.

2. Make the Ricotta Pesto.

3. Bring 4 to 5 quarts of water to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons salt and 1 tablespoon olive oil. As the water returns to a boil, put in half the pasta.

4. As soon as the first batch of pasta is done al dente, retrieve it with a colander spoon or skimmer and spread it out on a warm serving platter. Take a spoonful of hot water from the pasta pot and use it to thin out the pesto. Spread half the pesto over the pasta in the platter.

5. Drop the remaining pasta into the pot, drain it when done, spread it on the platter over the previous layer of pasta, cover with the remaining pesto, and serve it at once with the grated parmesan on the side.

Note: If the pasta is very fresh, you can cook it in two batches as suggested above because it will cook so quickly that the first batch will not have had time to get cold by the time the second batch is done. If it is on the dry side, it will take longer to cook, so you must do the two batches simultaneously in two separate pots.

– Recipe from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition, by Marcella Hazan