IHCC: Plenty O Pasta

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, we've cooked up Jamie Oliver's pasta dishes.  Stop by and take a look.


Some people go on food quests.  To find the perfect burger.  Or the perfect French onion soup.  Or chocolate chip cookie.  The best part of a food quest is that when you taste a version of what you're after, you can always say, "well, now, I don't know if this is the best."  Which means you can keep on eating burgers and French onion soup and chocolate chip cookies for as long as your little heart desires.  Or until it gives out from all the burgers.

My food obsession quest is to seek out the best lemony pasta.  Why lemony pasta?  Shrug. 

This week I picked Jamie Oliver's Lemon Linguine.


It wasn't our favorite Jamie Oliver recipe so far. 
Saving that for the May potluck.  Wink.  Wink. 
And it's definitely not my favorite lemony pasta.
Giada de Laurentiis' Linguine w/ Shrimp & Lemon Oil and Fiery Angel Hair Pasta top my list so far.

It was ok. 

But I can't fairly judge.  Sicilian lemons in my small town?  Not a chance.  Rocket?  No way.  (I lacked this for IHCC's Giada stint too).  This is a much tamer dish than the two mentioned above.  If someone found those overwhelming, I'd encourage them to try Jamie's Lemon Linguine.  Making the "sauce" by adding the Parm to the lemon mixture and watching it all dissolve was super cool, though. 

About the picture.  Yeah...not happening.  While out taking pictures of another dish, my camera told me the card was full.  Seriously...you can't squeeze like 2 more on there?  This had to do with my blog after all.  So in proper fashion, I freaked out.  A little.  More or less.  Don't look at me like that.  We both know you do it too.  (Just what was your state of mind when Blogger spazzed out recently?)  To free up space, I hurriedly deleted pictures that had already been saved on my computer.  Or so I thought.

Lemon Linguine
from JamieOliver.com (click for printable recipe)

500g dried linguine pasta (about 1 lb)
juice of 3 Sicilian lemons and zest of 1
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
125g Parmesan cheese, grated (about 4.5 oz)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a large bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and finely chopped
a handful of rocket

Cook the linguine in a generous amount of boiling, salted water for about 12 minutes, then drain thoroughly and return to the saucepan. Meanwhile, beat the lemon juice and zest with the olive oil, then stir in the Parmesan – it’ll go thick and creamy. Season and add more lemon juice if needed. Add the lemon sauce to the linguine and shake the pan to coat each strand of pasta with the sauce (the Parmesan will melt when mixed with the pasta). Finish by stirring in the chopped basil and the rocket.