Lemon spaghetti is one of my go-to summer recipes. Spring arrived (mostly) in Minnesota, so I am adding this dish back into our meal rotation. I found this recipe in the back of a Cooking Light years ago. They listed it as a side dish and served with a caesar salad and bread sticks. I make it as a main dish and sometimes add grilled chicken or shrimp for protein and variety. This is a light, zingy and fresh pasta dish suited to almost any type of pasta – spaghetti, rotini, angel hair, campanelle, ziti, etc.

Lemon Spaghetti from Cooking Light

Spaghetti noodles (approx 12 oz)

2 lemons

1/4 C olive oil

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 C chopped fresh flat leaf parley

2 oz shaved Parmesan cheese

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. Place pasta in large bowl.

In small bowl combine 1 tsp grated lemon rind, lemon juice, olive oil, 3/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp red pepper. Whisk.

Drizzle sauce over noodles and add Parmesan cheese and parsley.

This recipe is very forgiving if you keep the ingredients in proportion. I usually use an entire box of pasta, the juice of 2 to 3 lemons (depending on size), an equal amount of olive oil, and a whole heckuva lot more cheese than the recipe lists. The cayenne pepper gives the dish a nice kick, but I use less when I make it for kids. For working parents, this dish is easy to prep in advance. I chop the parsley and make the sauce in the morning. When I come home from work, all I have to do is boil the noodles, drain and dump in the sauce, parsley and cheese.  I hope you all enjoy this dish as much as we do. Three cheers for spring!

Note: I lost my original copy of this recipe. I *think* it’s from the summer of 2008, but I’m not certain. I cannot find the recipe on Cooking Light’s site. If anyone can provide the source for me I will gladly update this post.