Lemon Pepper Pasta

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

We all can use another fast pasta recipe, right? Kale brings so much nutrition to any kind of noodle. They are a perfect pair because you can cook them at the same time, side by side in a skillet and a pot and then combine them—all in 15 minutes.

This lemon pepper pasta recipe only has 9 ingredients. Most of them I would consider pantry ingredients that you might usually have in your kitchen. If not, they are probably mainstays on your weekly grocery list.

Garlic and lemon are classic ingredients really shine together. There is something so light and tasty about minced garlic and fresh lemon with pasta tossed in olive oil. You shouldn’t feel obligated to always make a full sauce.

As written, the recipe is vegetarian, but you can make it vegan. All you have to do is skip the pecorino cheese or use dairy-free Parmesan or nutritional yeast.

Ingredients & Substitutions

This is what you need:

• Pasta: My preference for this recipe is a long noodle like spaghetti, linguine, bucatini or fettuccine. Avoid angel hair because it is too thin to stand up to the kale leaves.
• Olive oil: Go with high quality extra-virgin olive oil since this is what’s dressing the pasta with very few other ingredients.
• Kale: You can use curly green kale or lacinato kale. Just pull the leaves off the stems and roughly chop them.
• Garlic: Depending how garlicky you like it, you can mince 2 or 3 garlic cloves.
• Lemon: No part of the lemon goes to waste in this recipe because you add both the zest and the juice.
• Pecorino is a hard Italian sheep’s milk cheese with a salty and nutty flavor. You can swap it out and substitute with Parmesan cheese which has a milder taste.
• Red pepper flakes: For some heat, I stir in red pepper flakes. Depending your preference on spice level, you can reduce or increase the amount.
• Salt & pepper: The pasta is seasoned with kosher salt and black pepper. Don’t be shy about taking a few bites and adding more if you think it needs it.

How To Make Lemon Pepper Pasta

1. Cook the spaghetti in a big pot of salted boiling water. Check the package instructions to see the recommended cooking time. Usually, it is around 10 minutes. Make sure not to overcook the pasta. It should still have some bite.

2. Sauté the kale. Give the spaghetti a few minutes head start because you want to time it so the noodles are ready at the same time as the kale. Heat the olive oil and sauté the kale until the leaves start to soften.

3. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper and lemon zest. Continue cooking for a minute until fragrant. Then squeeze in the lemon juice.

4. Use tongs to transfer the spaghetti from the pot into the skillet with the kale. Doing it this way allows some of the pasta water to cling to the noodles instead of losing all of that starchy water if you were to shake it off in a colander. (And it is one less thing to wash!) Toss the pasta in the oil and kale and stir in the cheese.

Serving

A salad is always a good idea for a side dish with pasta. Even though this recipe already has greens because of the kale, it doesn’t hurt to add more. Try this arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette, Italian chopped salad or brussels sprout Caesar salad. You also can enjoy it with a piece of bread with a sturdy crust to soak up the olive oil on your plate.

Also, you can serve this pasta dish with a veggie side such as Parmesan roasted asparagus or roasted green beans with almonds.

Leftovers & Storage

You can store the pasta in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days. Warm it in a skillet with a little olive oil on the stove. If you do microwave leftovers, give them splash of olive oil after you reheat them.

You can eat leftovers cold and throw in some baby arugula or spinach to treat it like a pasta salad. I know that may sound odd with long thin pasta shapes like spaghetti, but try it.