Recipe: Creamy Shells with Peas and Bacon

My eight-year-old eats nicely. We just told friends how he turned the corner from picky to rather omnivorous around the end of kindergarten. That said, when the first bite of a dinner makes him lean his head back against his chair and close his eyes in pleasure, I - as father and cook - take notice. The four-year-old also ate this without complaining, which is newsworthy in our house.

If you read down to the bottom of the recipe card, you'll see that this came from the charter issue of Cook's country. Easy and pretty quick to make, the recipe calls for only one non-staple ingredient for us: ricotta cheese. Make ricotta a staple and whapam! You could have this twice a month.

I'm sure shells would play well with the other ingredients. We've been perfectly happy with Penne Rigate. Don't forget to reserve that cup of pasta water!