The Easy Lemon-Ricotta Pasta TikTok Can't Get Enough Of

With a signature flip of her chestnut hair, the enchanting Pasta Queen begins her quick (41 seconds to be exact) TikTok tutorial on making Ricotta Lemon Delight, an easy pasta dish topped with a no-cook sauce. More than 2.2 million TikTok followers have already watched the video perhaps believing, at first glance, that actor Sofia Vergara is teaching them to cook. It's not long before the pasta dish itself is sharing center stage.

The Pasta Queen, aka Nadia Caterina Munno, serves up drama-free ease of the recipe, which calls for Vesuvius (volcano shaped) pasta, ricotta cheese, pasta water, lemon juice and zest, grated cheese, salt, and what Munno describes as a 'scrunch of pepper.' 

Her passion comes from a genuine love and knowledge of the dishes that she grew up eating and cooking. Born in Rome, Italy, and living in Florida, she has earned her TikTok moniker. Munno comes from a five-generation family of pasta makers in the town of Gragnano, located in Southern Italy. 

The TikTok star makes preparing pasta dishes, like her macaroni and cheese, look as easy as opening a package of Kraft. The end result? "Amazing!" declares Munno. In fact, she describes everything as either 'amazing' or 'just gorgeous.' You'll never hear a bland "It's pretty good."

The Pasta Queen's Lemon Ricotta Delight takes only eight to 10 minutes to whip up. The cookbook author uses the Vesuvius pasta because it's popular in her ancestral Campania region of Italy, but also because she says they are a her "favorite." In the TikTok video, she calls them "little volcanos of love, like you, "while showing off the naked pasta morsel. If you can't find volcano pasta in your supermarket, try fusilli, shells, or rotini.

One important step in this easy process is the grated cheese topping. "Go crazy with Pecorino Romano, then sprinkle zest and pepper to make it perfect," she says, emphasizing the last word. "You never have to tell me to go crazy with cheese twice," wrote one follower. 

Others suggested adding color to brighten up the dish, such as sundried tomatoes, arugula, or peas. If the thought of dinner without grilled meat makes your inner Bobby Flay flail, throw in chicken or shrimp. 

Aside from the expected "amazing" and "gorgeous," comments, other reactions from TikTok viewers include "superb," "brilliant," and "perfecto." One TikTok follower named Chris said, "I am SO a volcano of love. I was hypnotized watching this." So were we Chris. And as we watched, it reminded of us Giada De Laurentiis's Lemon Spaghetti recipe with a twist, and now we want that, too.