Lemon Garlic Parmesan Pasta
What I am fan girl-ing over this summer: this Lemon Garlic Parmesan Pasta. When you toss spaghetti pasta with butter, lemon juice, fresh garlic and a loaded amount of parmesan cheese, you don’t stand a chance.
You just signed yourself up for the can’t-stop-eating, can’t-get-enough, need-to-make-again feeling over and over again.
All the ways to serve it
Is it a side dish? Is it a main dish?
YES AND YES.
Besides being crazy tasty, I love the versatility of this dish. It is a great side dish to many different meats and protein, or it can also be a light lunch or dinner by itself.
Also, MEAL PREP ALERT! I like making a whole lot of it and then save the rest as leftovers. This pasta dish keeps really well and can last for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
Trying to figure out how to serve this? NO PROBLEMO. Here are a few ideas:
- Serve with Bake Chicken Tenders (Spicy or Non Spicy), Lemon Butter Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops, Lemon Chicken Piccata and Pork Milanese
- Toss with shredded rotisserie chicken or grilled chicken
- Heat and serve frozen meatballs with it
- Toss with spinach or other veggies to make it a vegetarian meal
- By itself for a quick meal!
How to make Lemon Garlic Parmesan Pasta
When life is busy, this is the dish for you. Because it is so easy to make, and you will actually love your meal!
Boil the pasta, make the sauce, and toss pasta in sauce. Then sprinkle on more parmesan cheese and some fresh parsley. It should take about 20 minutes to do all that!
When making the sauce, use a skillet and melt butter in skillet and sauté fresh garlic in butter.
Once you can smell the fragrance of the garlic, add salt, black pepper, some pasta water (from boiling the pasta) and lemon juice to the sauce. Parmesan will be sprinkled on later after tossing pasta in the sauce.
Something to note: When lemon juice and garlic interact, especially when using older garlic, garlic turns blue. I was a little freaked out at first when I made this and saw blue garlic pieces, but my pal Google told me it’s a natural reaction. It is safe to eat and it doesn’t change the taste.
So there are two things you can do if you see blue garlic when cooking the sauce – 1) remove all the blue garlic by straining it (what I did in this recipe), or 2) just leave it because blue garlic is totally edible.
Pro tip: use good parmesan cheese. Buy a block parmesan cheese and grate it yourself, because those are the best kind. The next best thing is to get the refrigerated shredded/grated parmesan cheese. I would avoid getting the non-refrigerated pre-grated kind.
The quality of the parmesan cheese makes a BIG difference in the quality and taste of this dish!
I love it when a simple dish yields so much flavor. This is exactly one of those dishes. If you want to make this slightly healthier, use whole wheat pasta, or do a mixture or whole wheat and regular pasta.
Nutty, savory, citrusy, garlicky. ALL THE FLAVORS and MORE.
I’m going to be eating this all summer long. And very likely into the Fall and Winter.
JOIN ME!!!!
If you make this recipe, don’t forget to comment below and let me know how it goes! Also, take a pic and tag me on instagram because I wanna see!!!
Calling all pasta lovers!
That’s right! I have more pasta recipes just for you!
- Cherry Tomato Pasta and Basil Pasta with Chicken
- Tomato Basil Gnocchi
- Classic Lasagna with Béchamel Sauce
- The Best Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
- Blackened Shrimp Pasta
- Creamy Sun-dried Tomato Pasta with Chicken
- One Pot Chicken and Broccoli Pasta (by Nicki from Kitchen Sanctuary!)
Lemon Garlic Parmesan Pasta
Ingredients
- 16 oz whole wheat spaghetti or regular, or mixed
- 6 tbsp salted butter
- 7-10 cloves fresh garlic
- 1/2 cup freshly squeeze lemon juice 2-3 large lemons
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 cup pasta water (from boiling the pasta) + more if needed
- 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese + more for garnish
- 1-2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- In a large pot, bring water to boil. Once water boils, add spaghetti and cook according to package instructions. Do not overcook. Reserve pasta water for later (be sure to reserve more than 1/4 cup in case you need more).
- Drain pasta water. If pasta will be sitting for a while, rinse it with cold water and toss in olive oil to prevent it from sticking and getting overcooked.
- While pasta is cooking, prep the rest of the ingredients. Chop garlic and parsley, grate parmesan cheese, and squeeze lemon juice.
- In a large skillet, melt butter and cook chopped garlic until fragrant but do not brown or burn garlic. Add lemon juice, salt, black pepper and 1/4 cup pasta water to skillet. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
- Optional: If garlic turns blue (it's normal because of its reaction with lemon juice), using a strainer to remove garlic.
- Toss pasta in sauce and 1 cup of parmesan cheese. Add additional 1 or 2 tbsp pasta water if needed, but note that this is not a wet pasta dish. Garnish with more parmesan cheese and parsley.
- Serve and enjoy!
You don’t list where/when to add the parmesan cheese.
Oops! I just added it to 6). Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
Can this be served as a cold dish?
Yes!
Delicious! I had leftover spaghetti and used it here. I also steamed some broccoli and added it to the final dish. Hubs said this was a keeper. Thank you!
That’s awesome! Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Absolutely delicious!!! I made this dish for my super-fussy husband in our new Italian home. The grocery store delivered extra lemons by mistake and I said ‘I know what to do.’ We used freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano which made up for the dried parsley.
Yay! Happy to hear that you all enjoyed it! 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
I’ve tried lemony-garlicky parmesan pastas before but was always disappointed by the lack of flavor. This recipe, however, is fantastic! I used really good parmesan, fresh garlic and lemon, and Ronzoni Gluten-Free Thin Spaghetti, which worked perfectly and tasted just like traditional wheat pasta. Will be making again and again!
Yay! I love hearing that! Thank you so much for trying it! 🙂
I want to make this for a family party this weekend! Can this be prepared ahead of time at all? Or do you think it would be better to make it entirely the day prior and reheat the dish in an oven the day of the party?
Absolutely! You can prepare it ahead of time and reheat the dish in the oven or even the microwave. Sometimes I even eat it cold/at room temperature!
Amazing recipe! my family loved it thank you so much!❤️
That’s wonderful, Alexis! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
The amount of parmesan in this dish rendered it practically inedible for my family and I.
Sorry to hear that it didn’t work out for you and your family. Hopefully by reducing the amount of parmesan it will be more to your liking!
Fabulous. Made a smaller amount but still was perfect. The lemon hung in the background and the slow pouring grated Parmesan cheese just made it. Thank you for a needed, fairly easy dish for us tonight!
Thank YOU for making it and sharing! So happy to hear that you all enjoyed it!
I loved this recipe! If you love lemon like I do, this is the recipe for you. I used half a box of linguine since that’s what I had on hand and it was extra saucy which was a bonus. I also added some diced chicken for some protein. Can’t wait to make this again soon!
Yes! perfect for lemon lovers! 🙂 So glad you enjoyed it – it’s one of our go-to recipes. Thanks for sharing!
SO GOOD
So glad to hear!!
Excellent recipe. I made it for dinner with broccoli and it was fantastic. Perfect amount of creaminess and lemon flavor!!!
Thank you so much, Amanda! Happy to hear that you enjoyed it!
I added the zest from the Lemons and put Bacon Crumble
Made this this evening and it was fabulous! Nice and simple, really tasty. Added some prawns and salmon at the end too, just because!!
Thank you so much! So happy to hear that you loved it!
I wanted to make a quick and easy dinner tonight and came across this Lemon Garlic Parmesan Pasta. It was delicious, just like every other recipe of yours I’ve tried! I was low on lemon so I only used half the amount but it still had a wonderful lemon flavor. I love lemon and thyme together so added a little fresh thyme when I sautéed the garlic and I added a splash of cream with the pasta water. It’s soooo good! I’ll definitely make this again. Looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!!
Thank you so much for your kind review, Llene. Nothing makes me happier than hearing you’ve been enjoying my recipes. SO appreciate you trusting my recipes! 🙂
try it with capers!!
YUM! Great idea!
So glad to see a dish like this without cream. Simplicity is always best. Thank you for this recipe.
So glad you liked the recipe!
What if I want to make it wetter?
Add more pasta water to the pasta when tossing it in the lemon garlic sauce.
This has become an almost weekly dish for me. I love about anything with parm. Cant believe Id not discovered it before. Great with just about anything, very versatile. I tried adding capers as someone else suggested and that took it to a whole other level of yum.
Yay! I love hearing that! It’s one of my all time favorite as well. Capers in it sounds AMAZING!!