Another successful cooking attempt...

So...because I'm torturing myself with all-Italy-all-the-time, I've been watching a show on Cooking Channel called Amalfi Getaway, which has a gent travelling up and down the Amalfi Coast, cooking delicious-looking food with amazing scenery in the background.  I've enjoyed watching the show, though I'm not quite sure what the appeal of this particular guy is.  I'm guessing it's his attractiveness, though he isn't quite my cup of tea.  And he speaks Italian with a Canadian accent.  It's a little off-putting.  Plus, every now and then, he misidentifies the name of a dish.  I mean, if I know a dish is panzanella, shouldn't he?  But, ok.

Anyway, I was inspired to look at his website after his episode on lemons (I've described my one-track mind, yes?).  He has a recipe on his website called Spaghetti Al Limone.  Um, yes, I needed to try that. 

Part of the appeal of this recipe, besides the whole lemon thing, was that it only takes a few ingredients - spaghetti, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, parmigiano cheese and parsley.  Even I can put together a dish with so small an ingredient list!  You start by putting on a pot of water to boil.  I made sure to add a good amount of salt this time to the water, remembering the bland pasta I had last time I undersalted.  While the water was boiling, then while the pasta was cooking, I prepared the rest of the dish.

You cut the garlic clove in half and rub the serving dish with the exposed garlic clove.  That way, you get the essential oil of the garlic in the dish, without the very pungent pieces of raw garlic.  I liked that idea.

Then you add the juice of two lemons into your serving dish.  I used my attractive juicer.  I have to admit, I like using it - it's a nice, heavy, serious-looking cooking tool, but boy, it takes a lot of arm and wrist strength to make it work.  It probably takes me longer to juice two lemons with that thing than it would to just squeeze it by hand.  But what would be the fun in that??  :)  After the lemon juice, you drizzle in the olive oil and whisk to emulsify.  Then you add the delicious parmigiano cheese (I also love my little hand grater/zester tool).

Once the pasta was done, I tossed it into the serving dish, along with the delicious lemon sauce.  You need to mix it well, to make sure all the pasta is coated.  Then you add more cheese, chopped parsley and the grated lemon zest.  Delicioso.  The recipe is for four servings, so I halved everything - that gave me plenty of pasta for dinner, plus more for lunch leftovers.  The leftovers were a little bland, though.  Next time, I may do a tiny bit more lemon on the leftovers before reheating.  Though I'm not sure if that will ruin the balance of the sauce.  I'll have to try it to find out.

The dish is light, fresh, lemony and delicious.  I give it a HUGE thumbs up, though I will admit that I added a small grinding of fresh black pepper, to give the dish a little bite.  I will also admit to feeling like I needed a little richness.  So I'm not sure if that means I need to be on a serious diet, or to use a better olive oil, or if maybe another fat is in order.  I've recently seen a recipe similar to this one, only it has some heavy cream in it.  In the interest of serious research, I may need to try that recipe, too.  :)   But, even if I'm not really getting the appeal of this particular tv host, I would be interested in trying other recipes off his website.  I'll keep you posted...