With the rain beating down in New York City, a beach day was a far away fantasy. A dream! I craved the sun and citrus of my favorite Italian Island, Capri. Luckily, the Smitten Kitchen had me covered with this simple recipe of Spaghetti with Lemon and Olive oil. After being transported myself I knew I had to share it with my readers!
Let this dish take you away to the coast of my favorite Italian Island; Capri!
Italian Lemons
Print Recipe
Spaghetti al Limone
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti or linguine
- Salt
- 3 lemons
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for serving
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 ounce finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/2 cup), plus additional for serving
- Ground black pepper
- Basil leaves for garnish
Instructions
- Cook linguine or spaghetti in well-salted water to your al dente tastes in a large, wide-bottomed pot.
- While pasta is cooking, zest lemons until you have a little shy of a tablespoon of zest. Juice lemons — you’ll have anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 cup lemon juice.
- Drain pasta, reserving 1 1/2 cups of pasta cooking water. Dry out your pot, then boil the olive oil, cream, zest and 1 cup of the reserved pasta water together for two minutes over high heat. Return pasta to pot and stir until coated. Add the cheese and 1/4 cup lemon juice and toss everything together. Add more pasta water, 1/4 cup at a time, if you’d like your dish a little looser. Taste a strand of pasta and see if you want to add the remaining lemon juice. Top with basil and season with salt and pepper.
- Serve immediately, drizzling individual portions with a bit of extra olive oil and sprinkling with extra Parmesan cheese.
