The Lazy Girl’s Take On Italian

I love pasta as much as I love rice… and for a South Indian that’s some serious love. However when I do make pasta, I find myself veering toward light flavorful versions as opposed to sauce drenched casseroles and stuffed pasta. Don’t get me wrong… there’s nothing wrong with stuffed manicotti or a lasagna occasionally.  Life Garfield would probably say… lasagna makes life better! So that would be another post. While my brother K and hubster R love any kind of pasta with a tomato sauce base, I like mine almost to be minimalist. This is especially true when you have amazing hand made pasta or fresh pasta… why mess with perfection?

Today let’s talk about whole-wheat pastas… for me, they were life changing! I actually no difference in taste between regular pasta and whole-wheat versions. I have the whole-wheat avatars in all shapes and sizes from elbows to spaghetti. I reach for them whenever I get a carb craving and don’t have to feel so guilty. So on that note, I would like to share with you one of those ‘lets just eyeball the whole thing’ recipes… enjoy!

Spaghetti with a Lemon Dressing Served with Broccoli and Walnuts

What you need:

2 servings uncooked Spaghetti

1 lemon

Garlic – I love mine garlicky, so I used 1-½ cloves

Salt

Red pepper flakes

Getting down to business:

Boil your spaghetti in well-salted water until done. Drain and keep aside. Reserve some of the pasta cooking water. In the same pot that you cooked the pasta, heat some olive oil and add in some minced garlic along with the red pepper flakes. As the oil heats up and you feel the garlic is softened, remove from heat and zest in the lemon. Follow with a squeeze of the lemon. I leave how much zest and juice up to you. Keep in mind that a little bit goes a long way. However please be careful that you remove the pan from the heat as lemon can turn very bitter when it comes in contact with heat. Don’t forget to add in the salt and whisk everything together.

Add in the warm pasta and toss well. If needed, add in some pasta cooking water to loosen up the pasta. Top off with some shavings of Parmesan and voila! You’re done!

I served this with

Broccoli Tossed with Walnuts

What you need:

Walnuts or pine nuts – lightly toasted

Salt

Red pepper flakes

Garlic, thinly sliced. I used 1 clove of garlic

Lemon zest

2 cups of Steamed Broccoli

Getting down to business:

Heat some olive oil and add in the garlic with the red pepper flakes. After a few seconds, add in the nuts followed by the broccoli. Next, season with salt and add some lemon zest. Toss well and your done!

Notes:

When zesting a lemon, ensure you do not grate the white part of the peel too. You only need the yellow surface peel.

You could add in some thyme to the pasta, as it would tie in with the lemony flavor.

This also travels well and tastes great at room temperature.