20 mins
Super easy
serves 6
About the recipe
Just a little Parmesan, good extra virgin olive oil, and lemon juice and zest is all it takes to create simple, light, lemony pasta.
Ingredients
500g dried linguine
3 Sicilian lemons
extra virgin olive oil
125g Parmesan cheese
1 bunch of fresh basil (30g)
1 handful of rocket
Top Tip
When I was on honeymoon, some years ago now, I came across these fantastic Sicilian lemons – their skin is really fragrant in cooking and they are very juicy, too. You can use them roasted with fish, sliced very thinly in salads, and halved and put inside chicken – if you can’t find any, use normal lemons instead.
Method
- Cook the linguine in a pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions, then drain and return to the pan.
- Meanwhile, finely grate the zest from 1 lemon into a bowl, then squeeze in the juice from all three.
- Drizzle in 6 tablespoons of oil, and finely grate in the Parmesan, then beat together – it’ll go thick and creamy.
- Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper, and extra lemon juice, if needed. Pick and finely chop the basil leaves.
- Add the lemony sauce to the linguine and shake the pan to coat each strand of pasta (the Parmesan will melt when mixed with the pasta).
- Finish by stirring through the chopped basil and rocket.
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