Lemon Arugula Pasta -- a #recipe to brighten gray days

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  In the deep midwinter, it’s wonderful to get a bite of something light and springy, and this dish does the trick beautifully. 

I’m always cautious about the amount of lemon juice I use, starting with half and adding more if needed. This was just right – it added brightness and a hint of lemon without puckering the mouth and squinting the eyes in that “oh, you used lemon!” response. 

Like spinach, arugula wilts and shrinks when heated. It’s got a lightly peppery taste that’s wonderfully refreshing.

I rewrote this from the original version to use just the one pan. You’re welcome. It’s also easy to cut in half and still serve 2 for dinner with leftovers for lunch. 

Serve with a loaf of crusty bread and a crisp Pinot Grigio. 

Do you have a special dish or ingredient you count on to brighten the dark days of winter? 

Lemon Arugula Pasta 

1 pound short pasta, such as penne, rigatoni, or fusilli

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 

4 cloves garlic, minced 

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

8 ounces arugula

kosher salt 

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, about 1 lemon 

1 tablespoon lemon zest, about 1 lemon

1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano grated, plus extra for serving 

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta to al dente. Reserve a cup pasta water. Drain. 

While pasta is draining, heat pot over medium heat and add olive oil. Add garlic and saute about 1 minute, careful not to let it burn. Add the red pepper flakes and cook about 30 seconds. Pour in about 1/4 cup pasta water and stir, scraping any stuck bits off the bottom of the pot.

Return the pasta to the pot. Add the arugula and toss to coat. Turn off heat. Add salt, starting with half a teaspoon and adjust to taste. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, and grated cheese. Toss to emulsify. Add more pasta water if needed to mix the cheese with the pasta and keep it from being too dry. Taste and adjust seasonings. 

Serve in pasta bowls with additional cheese, and if you’d like, a drizzle of olive oil.

A full recipe serves 6-8. This recipe can be cut in half easily. Leftovers reheat nicely. 

TO ERR IS CUMIN 

A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, coming July 16, 2024 in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .

Available at Amazon  * Barnes & Noble  * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * And your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

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