Lemon & Chilli Spring Pasta

This is essentially a bowl of springy, feel-good, zesty delightedness: a ‘go-to’ for the warmer evenings when you want something quick and simple to prep so that you can spend more time dousing yourself in the last dregs of vitamin-D and vitamin-Gin. I like that the ingredients are refreshingly reasonable in the cost and accessibility area: always nice to know you can still eat tasty food without having to source a long list of wild ingredients you’d have to fork out the equivalent annual Netflix membership for, isn’t it?

But, seriously. This is really good. I also often add tinned anchovies, sardines or bacon for an extra ‘something’ – but you can just keep it simple with the parmesan if that’s what you like. Enjoy!

Lemon & Chilli Spring Pasta

 

Save Print

Recipe type: lunch, dinner

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 large leek, chopped
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small handful sage leaves (you can also use basil or parsley)
• salt and pepper
• 300g dried pasta of choice (I used a mix of farfalle and penne, two packets I had open!)
• ½ head of savoy cabbage, chopped
• 3 good handfuls frozen peas
• 1 lemon
• extra virgin olive oil
• chilli flakes, as much as you like
• parmesan, to serve
• olives (optional)

Instructions

1. What you need to do:
2. Heat a generous amount of oil in a pan and fry the onion till soft. Add in the garlic and fennel seeds, cooking for a further minute, before adding in the leek and season well. Allow to cook on a low heat whilst you prepare the rest, stirring just occasionally and adding more oil if needed.
3. Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salty water to the boil - I like to add a splash of olive oil here too! Cook the pasta as instructed - but about 5 minutes before it's ready, add in the cabbage and peas.
4. Drain the pasta, cabbage and peas and reserve a little bit of the pasta water. Pour this all into the pan with the veg (with the water) and season with plenty of salt, pepper and chilli flakes. Grate the zest of the lemon on top.
5. Serve up in hot bowls (I swear, this makes a difference!), add olives if using and grate on as much cheese as your heart desires - plus a good glug of olive oil on each serving is a must.

3.5.3251