Lemon Linguini

Photo via Hungry in Hogtown since I forgot to take a picture of mine.
I've made this recipe for years and it's almost as easy as scrambling eggs. Nigella has a whole spiel about prepping for friends coming over, but her main point is this dish only takes as long to prepare as it takes for the water to boil and the pasta to cook so plan accordingly. I also mix it up a little so what I'll post is my version. If you want hers, you can click here.

*I used Quinoa linquini the other night to excellent results, but you can use whatever long pasta you have on hand.

The thing I love most about this recipe is that I'm almost always bound to have all the ingredients, therefore, it's practically a "free" dinner.

Ingredients:
* 2 pounds linguine*
* 2 egg yolks (preferably at room temperature)
* 2/3 cup heavy cream or 1/2 and 1/2
* 1/2 cup and 1/2 a cup freshly grated Parmesan or pecornio romano
* 1 lemon, zested, and juice of 1/2, plus more juice, as needed
* Salt
* freshly milled black pepper
* 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold, unsalted butter, plus more if preferred
(leave in fridge until needed)
* 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves, thyme

In big pot cook pasta per instructions. As soon as water is on the burner to heat up, in a separate bowl combine eggs, cream/1/2 and 1/2, cheese, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper. Set aside and let warm up (not near a heat source, just not in the fridge). (This will help to level out the temperatures between a cold mix and hot pasta which could yield you scrambled-egg lemon pasta if you're not careful.)

When pasta is el dente, set aside a cup of the boiling liquid and drain pasta. Put back in pot off heat source and add cold butter. Melt the butter completely then add in approximately 1/2 a cup of egg mixture, then add the rest. If it's looking dry or sticky, add a little of the boiling water, a tablespoon at a time.

Add herbs, toss, and serve!

As an alternative, I also sometimes throw in a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach right after the butter (the pasta is still hot enough to steam the greens, but not yet cooled off by the butter to not cook the spinach).

It is yum, yum, yummy!! Enjoy!