Enjoy a quick and easy weeknight dinner that’s good enough for guests with this Easy Pasta with Lemon. It’s light and flavorful, a perfect meatless main that is ideal for meal prep as well.
Prepared in less than 30-minutes, this easy pasta dish with lemon is super versatile, allowing you to serve it as a side or to embellish with whatever proteins and vegetables you find in the fridge. At 56 cents/serving, it’s worth making on the regular!
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Pasta is an easy, no-brainer, quick weeknight meal that pleases multitudes. This particular pasta with lemon is one of my favorite dishes, since we were newlyweds, crammed in a 200-square foot studio, trying to make ends meet in Santa Barbara.
A perfect, good cheap eat, it’s adapted from a version I found in Susan Branch’s Summer Book and is easily one of the best quick and easy pasta dishes you could make.
This Pasta with Lemon is perfect on all counts, including a handful of herbs and chiles, tossed with tomatoes, scallions, lemon juice, and olive oil, over a hearty portion of cooked linguine.
Why Make This
It’s quick. This pasta with lemon comes together in minutes, with only a pot and a serving platter to wash.
It’s easy. No fancy cooking techniques required here. Just cook the noodles and throw in the mix-ins.
It’s super versatile. Pasta with lemon is great hot or cold, it looks fancy enough for guests without costing a fortune, and can easily incorporate all kinds of leftover bits and bobs that need using in the fridge. It’s super delicious as a meal prep lunch, too.
Ingredients
Here’s what you need for this easy pasta with lemon:
pasta – I like using linguine, but you can easily swap in other long pastas, such angel hair or spaghetti. You can use short tube pastas as well but the texture and flavor of the dish will be different. Since lemon is such a delicate flavor, long pasta works best.
olive oil – Olive oil adds good flavor, so use it whenever possible.
lemon juice and zest – Use fresh lemon juice and zest over bottled whenever possible. Remember you can freeze lemons if you’ve got extra but can’t use them up right away.
tomatoes – If you don’t have fresh in-season tomatoes, use grape tomatoes as an off-season substitute. Generally they have enough flavor to make up for their pint-sized stature.
green onion – Green onion adds a bright, fresh taste to this pasta dish. You can also use chives or fresh, chopped garlic if you prefer.
fresh herbs – I like to use parsley and basil here, but you can also use cilantro and other fresh herbs of your choice.
black and red pepper – Using both peppers adds a nice kick.
parmesan cheese – Parmesan is optional, but it rounds out the flavors really nicely.
Variations
This is a very flexible recipe, allowing you to mix and match different ingredients based on what you have on hand or where your imagination and taste buds lead you.
Consider these fun variations:
- Use a different shape pasta.
- Stir in chopped fresh garlic, sweet peas, snap peas, capers, chopped fresh tomatoes, julienned sun dried tomatoes, blanched green beans or broccoli, steamed asparagus, torn fresh spinach or kale.
- Substitute balsamic vinegar for the lemon juice.
- Add other chopped fresh herbs, such as cilantro, rosemary, and thyme.
- Add cooked chicken or shrimp.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- In a large pot of salted, boiling water, cook the linguine until al dente, according to package directions. Drain and transfer to a large pasta bowl.
- Pour the olive oil and lemon juice over the pasta and toss to coat. Sprinkle with the lemon zest. Add the tomatoes, scallions, parsley, basil, and red pepper flakes, and toss until well distributed.
- Season to taste with black pepper and cheese. Serve hot, cold, or at room temperature.
FAQs
Read the instructions on the package of pasta. Usually they give a range of 2-3 minutes. Test the pasta at the shorter time to see if it’s your preferred texture. Let it cook until you like it.
Pasta is a great thing to meal prep. It keeps well for several days and easily reheats. If you know you’re going to meal prep pasta, cook it al dente. Between the sauce or dressing you might add as well as its wait time in the fridge, meal prep pasta will absorb more liquid. Cooking it al dente to begin with will help it not get overly soft.
Pasta reheats well in the pasta. If the noodles are dry, add a splash or two of hot water, cover vented, and reheat at 30 second intervals until the noodles are the temperature you prefer.
Recipe Costs
Knowing how much it costs you to prepare a recipe can help you decide if it’s the type of recipe to make regularly or one you might want to save for special occasions. Let’s crunch some numbers and see how this recipe pencils out.
- linguine pasta – $1.50
- olive oil – $0.60
- lemon juice and zest – $0.75
- grape tomatoes – $1.00
- green onions – $0.25
- fresh herbs – $0.20
- red pepper flakes – $0.02
- black pepper – $0.01
- Parmesan cheese – $0.15
While your prices may vary depending on where you shop, you can expect to pay somewhere around $4.48/batch or 56 cents per serving!
Save Even More
Herbed Lemon Linguine is pretty economical by virtue of its being a meatless pasta dish. Here are some of the strategies I use to make this recipe even more affordable:
- Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale! When I see a great price on pasta, I buy a lot of it. We almost always have a stockpile of noodles in the pantry. The same goes for scallions which often go as low as 3 for $1.
- Grow an herb garden. Basil and parsley are super easy to grow in a container. You can even buy “living herbs” from the grocery store.
- Take advantage of lemons in season. Do you or a neighbor have a lemon tree in the backyard? Remember you can freeze the lemon juice as well as the zest so that you can enjoy fresh lemon all year long.
More Great Meal Preps
Easy Pasta with Lemon
Equipment
- pasta bowl
Ingredients
- 1 lb linguine pasta cooked and drained according to package directions
- ½ cup olive oil
- ¼ to ⅓ cup lemon juice
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 cup grape tomatoes , cut in half
- ⅓ cup chopped green onions
- 2 tablespoon fresh parsley (chopped)
- 2 tablespoon fresh basil (chopped)
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- black pepper
- Parmesan cheese (shredded) for sprinkling or plant based alternative
Instructions
- In a large pot of salted, boiling water, cook the linguine until al dente, according to package directions. Drain and transfer to a large pasta bowl.
- Pour the olive oil and lemon juice over the pasta and toss to coat. Sprinkle with the lemon zest. Add the tomatoes, scallions, parsley, basil, and red pepper flakes, and toss until well distributed.
- Season to taste with black pepper and cheese. Serve hot, cold, or at room temperature.
Notes
- Use a different shape pasta.
- Stir in chopped fresh garlic, sweet peas, snap peas, capers, chopped fresh tomatoes, julienned sun dried tomatoes, blanched green beans or broccoli, steamed asparagus, torn fresh spinach or kale.
- Substitute balsamic vinegar for the lemon juice.
- Add other chopped fresh herbs, such as cilantro, rosemary, and thyme.
- Add cooked chicken or shrimp.
Nutrition
This post was originally published on September 17, 2016. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Emma
Delightful dish! I made this with our over abundance of grape tomatoes from the garden and the lemony sauce was so light and perfect for the noodles. Added some sundries tomato chicken sausage and even my picky little ones were in pasta heaven. Thanks for sharing!
Jessica Fisher
Yay! So glad to hear it was a hit! Must have been fab with garden tomatoes!
Laura
Where are the tomatoes
Jessica Fisher
Hiding in my notes. Sorry about that. I knew I was tired when I typed it up, just didn’t know how tired. Fixed. Thanks!