Lemon Arugula Pasta

Lemon arugula pasta is pasta made with a cheesy lemony sauce and tossed with arugula and sun-dried tomatoes.  It’s a great weeknight dinner option that everyone will love!

There is no chance that I will ever get tired of lemon flavored anything.  I love lemon so much that I’ve made it the icon on my blog.  I cant remember a time when I didn’t have a bag of lemons in my fridge, and I’ve even contemplated getting a lemon as my next tattoo.

In that vein, this lemon arugula pasta with sun dried tomatoes is an incredibly simple meal to make and it comes together in a flash so it’s a great option for a quick Tuesday night before you have to dash out the door to soccer practice or out for drinks with friends. 

Recipe Notes

Flavor:  the pasta dish is sharp and tangy from the lemon juice and the sun-dried tomatoes, but it’s also smooth and creamy from the parmesan cheese.

Texture:  If you don’t like large pieces of greens in your pasta, you can definitely chop up the arugula before adding it to the pasta.

Ease:  a super easy recipe to put together.  Mix the sauce ingredients together in a bowl, toss the pasta in the sauce and add the mix-ins.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Ingredient List

• Pasta
• Lemon
• Parmesan cheese
• Olive Oil
• Garlic
• Red pepper flakes (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Tips and Tricks

Make sure to fully cook the pasta.  You wont end up cooking the pasta and sauce together in the pan long enough to finish cooking, so make sure you cook the pasta for the fully recommended time.

Make sure to make the sauce in a separate bowl ahead of time.  It wont come together nearly as easily if you try to add it to the cooked pasta without whisking it all together first.

If you do what I do fairly regularly and forget to scoop out some of the pasta water, you can sub plain hot water.  It wont have quite the same magic that the starchy pasta water has but it will still help the sauce form. 

Pro Tip: I’ve started placing my colander in the sink with a measuring cup sitting inside it.  This is a great visual reminder to myself that I need to pour out some pasta water.

FAQ's

Do I have to use arugula?  Not at all!  If you don’t like arugula, you could sub in spinach, baby kale or watercress.  Any other tender green should work.

Do I have to include the sun-dried tomatoes?  Nope!  If you don’t like them, you can leave them out altogether, or you could sub in fresh cherry tomatoes chopped in half.  You could use roasted red peppers, although that would give you a completely different (but not unpleasant) flavor profile. You could add in artichoke hearts instead, as well!

What other kinds of cheeses would work here?  Personally I think the parmesan is the best option, but you could use Pecorino Romano or Grana Padano.

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Lemon Arugula Pasta

Lemon arugula pasta is pasta made with a cheesy lemony sauceand tossed with arugula and sun-dried tomatoes. It’s a great weeknight dinner option that everyone will love!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Servings 2 Servings

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 8 ounces of spaghetti or the long pasta of your choice
• ¼ cup of olive oil
• Zest and Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 cup of finely grated parmesan cheese
• 1 clove of garlic crushed or minced
• Pinch of crushed red pepper optional
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups of arugula
• ¼ cup of chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• Extra parmesan and lemon slices for serving

Instructions

 

• Cook the pasta according to package directions.
• While the pasta cooks, mix together the olive oil, lemon zest and juice, the parmesan cheese, garlic, crushed red pepper and salt and pepper in a large heat-proof bowl. Whisk together until well combined. Set aside until pasta is done.
• Once the pasta is cooked, scoop out a half a cup of the pasta water and then drain the pasta, but dont rinse it.
• Pour the drained pasta into the large bowl with the lemon sauce, and toss to combine. Add a few tablespoons of pasta water at a time until the sauce gets silky smooth. Add in the arugula and sun-dried tomatoes and toss to distribute.
• Serve with extra parmesan cheese and lemon slices.

Keyword pasta, weeknight pasta

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