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Lemon garlic pasta makes a dreamy weeknight dinner. It’s packed with flavor, couldn’t be more comforting, and comes together in 20 minutes.
Why we love this recipe
As far as I’m concerned, you can never have too many weeknight pasta recipes in your repertoire. Lemon garlic pasta:
- Couldn’t be quicker or easier to make
- Brims with savory, tangy, balanced flavor
- Has a lovely, gentle heat that’s totally customizable
- Makes a very inexpensive meal
I hope it will quickly become a favorite in your household, as it has in ours.
What you’ll need
Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe.
- Spaghetti works beautifully this recipe, since it does a great job absorbing the sauce during the last stage of cooking. But you can use any shape of pasta that you like.
- I’ve called for eight garlic cloves, but I often use a whole lot more. You can easily adjust the amount according to your preference.
- There’s no substitute for freshly squeezed lemon juice, which adds brightness and character to this simple dish.
- Choose a good-quality, freshly grated parmesan cheese. It adds a ton of savoriness to this simple pasta. If it’s important to you that this dish be vegetarian, be sure to use a variety that’s made without animal rennet.
- Use a really good-quality butter if you can. Here and virtually everywhere, I start with a cultured, salted butter from grass-fed cows. This sounds fancy but doesn’t have to be. Kerrygold, for example, is sold in most supermarkets at a reasonable price.
- Use flat-leaf parsley (also called Italian parsley). It has a more delicate texture and a milder flavor than its curly counterpart.
How to make it
Here’s an overview of what you’ll do to make a gorgeous batch of lemon garlic pasta. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.
- First you’ll set a big pot of salted water on the stove to boil and begin cooking the pasta. Meanwhile, cook the garlic and chili flakes in the butter and oil.
- Add the lemon juice, cheese, pepper, and 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water to the pan and bring to a simmer.
- Add the nearly-cooked pasta and finish cooking until it absorbs the sauce.
- Off the heat, stir in the parsley. That’s it!
Expert tips and FAQs
This recipe is so quick and easy to make, and it’s at its best shortly after cooking. I don’t recommend going out of your way to make it in advance.
That said, leftovers are delicious. They’ll keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for a week and can be reheated in the microwave.
More quick and easy pasta recipes
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Lemon Garlic Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 pound (454 grams) spaghetti
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
- 2 tablespoons (28 grams) butter
- 8 cloves garlic, chopped (see note 2 below)
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon chili flakes
- ½ cup (120 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½ cup (60 grams) grated parmesan cheese
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Instructions
- Fill a very large pot halfway with water. Add plenty of salt, cover, and bring to a boil.
- When the water boils, cook the spaghetti one minute less than it says on the package. Toward the end of cooking, scoop out and reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
- Meanwhile, set a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the olive oil and butter and warm until butter is melted.
- A?dd the garlic, salt, and chili flakes.
- Cook, stirring from time to time, until garlic is very fragrant, just a few minutes. Reduce heat if necessary to prevent browning.
- Drain pasta (reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water).
- I?nto the frying pan, whisk the lemon juice, grated cheese, pepper, and reserved cooking water. Bring to a simmer.
- A?dd drained pasta to pan and toss for a minute or two to coat well, letting the silky sauce thicken enough to coat the strands.
- O?ff the heat, stir in the parsley.
Notes
- Spaghetti works beautifully this recipe, since it does a great job absorbing the sauce during the last stage of cooking. But you can use any shape of pasta that you like.
- I've called for eight garlic cloves, but I often use a whole lot more. You can easily adjust the amount according to your preference.
- There's no substitute for freshly squeezed lemon juice, which adds brightness and character to this simple dish.
- Choose a good-quality, freshly grated parmesan cheese. It adds a ton of savoriness to this simple pasta. If it's important to you that this dish be vegetarian, be sure to use a variety that's made without animal rennet.
- Use flat-leaf parsley (also called Italian parsley). It has a more delicate texture and a milder flavor than its curly counterpart.
- This recipe is so quick and easy to make, and it's at its best shortly after cooking. I don't recommend going out of your way to make it in advance. That said, leftovers are delicious. They'll keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for a week and can be reheated in the microwave.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hungry for more?
Subscribe to Umami Girl’s email updates, and follow along on Instagram.
