Vermicelli With Lemon & Roasted Garlic

A few months ago I watched someone make a lemon sauce for spaghetti and thought it sounded great.  They made a simple sauce with fresh lemon juice and cream.  I described it to Dan and he said it sounded delicious, and I agreed, so I've been meaning to give it a try.

I mentioned in my previous post that I had zested a few lemons to make limoncello.  This obviously left me with these zest-free lemons with which I had nothing to do.  So, it was a perfect time to try making a lemon pasta sauce.  I also wanted to add roasted garlic to the sauce for a sweetness and richness.  I just roasted the garlic the standard way and in the meantime juiced the lemons.  I also minced a little onion, and chopped some blanched string beans.  Then, as the pasta cooked (I used vermicelli), I began making the sauce.

For the sauce, I heated a few tablespoons of olive oil (including the oil from the roasted garlic) in a medium sized skillet and cooked the onions just until they were soft.  To that I added the roasted garlic (which I mashed into a paste), some crushed red pepper, the beans, salt and pepper.  I sprinkled on a little flour and then added some milk to make a creamy sauce.  After letting that bubble for a couple of minutes, I stirred in the lemon juice.  When the pasta was about a minute underdone, I transferred it to the skillet with a little bit of pasta water and tossed it all together for a couple of minutes in the simmering skillet.  Tasted and adjusted seasoning, and finished it with a sprinkling of fresh basil.  That's it.  Pretty simple. 

It came out exactly as I expected: very tangy and lemony, with a little background flavor of the sweet roasted garlic.  I thought the pasta was good, but it could have used a little more roasted garlic and a little less lemon.  It's always so hard to tell exactly how strong or weak the flavor of any fresh produce is going to be, though, so for my first attempt at this type of dish, I think it was well within the successful range.  Unfortunately, Dan didn't love it.  That is rare - he almost always loves what I cook.  He had originally said the idea of lemon pasta sounded delicious, but I guess he didn't really understand what that meant, cuz it was exactly as described but he ended up not loving it.  Not that he hated it, he just didn't love it.  I, however, thought it was good, although I think next time I'll adjust the lemon and garlic ratios like I said.

I'm glad I gave this a try.  I served it as a main dish, but I think it seemed more like a side.  I served it with my blue cheese stuffed roasted tomatoes, which was a nice, rich accompaniment to the very brightly flavored lemony pasta. 

Happy eating!