Saturday, July 9, 2011

A Lemon Affair

Dinner tonight: Lemon pasta. No, I can't get enough lemon things.

It's so easy--just toss your pasta with some olive oil, melted butter, a little bit of the cooking liquid from the pasta, fresh lemon juice and zest, salt and pepper. It's DIVINE. Great as a side or the main dish. Ina Garten serves it with roasted shrimp (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-pasta-with-roasted-shrimp-recipe2/index.html). But I don't live in the Hamptons with Jeffrey who can run to the market for the catch of the day. I live in Indy with Doug who so graciously blesses me by wrangling our two crazy kids for a couple of hours while I go to the movies ("Midnight in Paris"). Shrimp I ain't got, but I'm not missing it tonight!

For one pound of gluten free pasta you'll need:
1/2 cup of reserved cooking liquid
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup olive oil
2 lemons, zested and juiced
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper and about 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking liquid

Combine and toss with pasta. Add shrimp or grilled chicken if you have it--delish.

I love this recipe because I almost always have the ingredients on hand and it's so perfect in the summer. You could cut down a bit on the amount of butter and oil or use a substitute and it would still be great. I used Land O Lakes whipped butter--still good. Be careful with the salt, though, if your butter is salted. I urge you not to skimp on the lemon zest--it makes it so much more...lemony.

Yes, I'll probably chase my plate of pasta with a lemon square, but it wouldn't be a lemon affair without dessert!

2 comments:

  1. Rachel I marinated some chicken breasts in lemon juice, dijon mustard and worcestshire sauce and then grilled them and cut up into the finished pasta - quite good and the chicken stays very moist!! Yum! I think you just gave me my dinner idea for tonight!! LOL! Karen R.

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  2. Karen--that sounds delicious! I'm going to try that!

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