I love simple dishes like this. They remind me of my single vegetarian days in L.A. when I’d often come home from work and find a total of three grocery items in my kitchen. This is in contrast to the 9.446 grocery items in my kitchen now—everything from bacon grease to a freezer full of beef, but we won’t go there today.
Lemon is an unlikely flavoring for pasta, but oh…is it ever refreshing and good, especially in the spring and summer. This is a baked version, but if you’re in a hurry there’s nothing more delicious than this: saute butter and olive oil, add chopped garlic. Squeeze in the juice of a couple of lemons and add in some of the zest. Stir together and add a splash or two of half and half or cream, then toss with pasta, chopped parsley, and Parmesan cheese. Divine.
There’s something about this baked version, though, that I just love. I use sour cream instead of cream or half and half—I like the “noodle kugel” quality of the finished dish, (I should have been Jewish, I love kugel so much.) and I love the smell of lemon and garlic emanating from the oven.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
This recipe may be doubled, tripled, or octupled—it’s totally easy.
The Cast of Characters: Spaghetti, lemons, garlic, butter, sour cream, olive oil, salt, Parmesan cheese, and parsley.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cook spaghetti until al dente. Drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside.
Start by grating the zest from one lemon.
If you don’t have a microplane zester, please remedy that situation immediately. Thank you.
In a skillet, melt the butter over low heat.
Add an equal amount of olive oil.
While the butter and oil are heating, peel the garlic.
And mince it very finely. The garlic and the lemon together is…is…worthy of a sonnet.
When the butter is melted…
Throw in the minced garlic.
Next, cut the lemon in half whose zest you ripped off a few minutes ago.
Use the tip of the knife to pop out the seeds if there are any.
Then squeeze the juice right into the pan. I used a whole (smallish) lemon, but you’ll need more for later.
Next comes 2 cups of sour cream.
And slowly stir the mixture together.
Next comes the grated lemon zest. Add as little or as much as you’d like…but don’t skimp!
Stir together, then add plenty of kosher salt. Half a teaspoon is a good start—remember that the sour cream really doesn’t have a lot of salt content.
Throw the spaghetti into a large bowl…
Then pour the lemony creamy mixture over the top and stir together.
News Flash: Guess what? If you’d like, you can go ahead and throw in the fresh parsley now, then refrigerate it as a pasta salad for later. Just garnish with plenty of fresh Parmesan after it’s cold.
But I’m going to bake mine because I’m naughty. Pour the noodles into an oven safe dish…
Cover it with foil, then bake for about 15 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for another 7 to 10 minutes, or until the top just barely turns golden. Watch as it’s baking and make sure it doesn’t look too dry.
While it’s baking, chop up plenty of fresh flat leaf parsley. I love parsley with this dish, but any combination of herbs works fine.
Also grate plenty of Parmesan cheese.
I use the microplane for this, but it results in a really fine, fluffy texture. Feel free to use a regular grater like most normal souls do.
Now comes the fun part. Remove the pasta from the oven…
And squeeze a little lemon juice over the top. Trust me.
Then comes the Parmesan…
And THEN comes the Parsley.
Oh, yum.
Next…you guessed it. Squeeze a little more lemon over the top.
This is lemon pasta, my darlings. You want to taste the lemon.
Then just throw the lemons on the side of the dish, grab some forks, plates, and gingham napkins and head outside! It’s only May—not too hot to eat lemon pasta on the porch.
Enjoy!
