Spaghetti al limone

With the glut of cookbooks on the shelves, sometimes a recipe will escape you until a casual flip through will bring a surprise. Why didn't I see this before, you might ask. And I did.

I have found great inspiration from The River Cafe Cook Book by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers in the past, but their recipe for Spaghetti al Limone I'd never noticed before until this afternoon. What a number! 

I had the spaghetti, the lemons, the parm, the basil and the olive oil, all my favourite ingredients, so I set to task.

Juice 3 to 4 lemons, zest 2 of them, chop that. In a bowl, slowly whisk in about 5 - 6 oz of olive oil to the lemon juice (this depends on the juiciness of the lemons). 

Whisk or stir in approximately 5 oz of freshly grated parmesan. It will become kind of thick and creamy. Add salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste, and set aside.

Cook the spaghetti in boiling salted water and drain. Combine the pasta and the lemon-olive oil mixture in the saucepan or a big bowl, making sure it's all melding together beautifully. Stir in two good handfuls of chopped basil and the lemon zest.

Divvy it up. Absolutely heavenly. Great as the main course, or I'm thinking a good accompaniment to let's say a breaded veal cutlet.  Either way, a definite keeper.