The first meal I tried from Blue Apron was the Orecchiette Pasta with English Peas, Pecorino & Mint. I think this recipe was pretty easy to follow and was actually an overall solid dish. I think it would have been nice with maybe some sliced ham (like a Carbonara) but overall it was nice and a solid start to the Blue Apron taste test.

Similar to Plated, some of the instructions happen in a different order than listed on the card so it is extremely important to read all the way through. This recipe in particular only called for 2 pans and a cooking time of 25 minutes. I found that to be true.

I started out by cooking the pasta. This was pretty easy (obviously) and while it was cooking, I was able to prep and start cooking everything else.

We have some onion, pea tips, lemon, and mint. The hardest part of the peas was shelling them. It was a bit more laborious than I would have liked.

After I prepped, I added ricotta, lemon juice and the zest of one lemon. This mixture was so tasty, I could have eaten it on its own.

While the pasta finished up, I sautéed the peas, onions and some garlic.

When they sautéed down, I added the pasta and the pea tips with the wet mixture.

I coated the pasta and the pea tips and let them cook down a bit more. The pasta was boiled to al dente so I wanted it to soften up a bit more.

I served it to my Mom who just had surgery and topped it off with the pecorino cheese. We were able to have seconds and have a little portion for leftovers. I really liked this meal but like I said, it could have benefited from a bit more protein or even more veggies.

Overall Ratings:

Ease of Recipe: 4 out of 5 stars. This recipe was so easy. Like ridiculously easy. I knocked off a point for shelling the damn peas.

Precision of the Recipe: 4 out of 5 stars. This dish took me about 30 minutes which was 5 minutes more than the time on the recipe. I blame this on the peas. At one point my mom asked why I was rolling dice.

Taste of Recipe: 4 out of 5 stars. Like I said earlier, this was pretty delicious but it was missing something. It just fell flat of being filling. But the lemon ricotta mixture was so good. I still think about it.

Quality of Ingredients: 5 out of 5. All the ingredients are pretty fresh. Blue Apron delivers everything packaged separate and I used them pretty quickly so everything was still fresh.

Final Verdict: Four out of Five stars.

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. This post is not sponsored by Blue Apron and I did not receive anything in exchange for this review.