h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'd always known that there were pasta dishes based around lemons, but I'd never really given it much thought.

This evening I realised that I had a lemon hanging around that really needed eating, so I thought I'd experiment.

I cooked some spaghetti, following the instructions carefully - A755741

In another pan I heated some olive oil and added a couple of crushed cloves of garlic; a quarter teaspoon of dried chili flake; and the juice of the lemon.

I cooked that for a minute or so to allow the flavours to infuse with the oil. Then chucked it over the drained pasta, and added the lemon zest and a bit of black pepper. Stirred it all up and served.

My God! It was wonderful


It could have done with a pinch of salt, and maybe a little less chili. Well we'll integrate that into the recipe the next time I cook it

how about this one, cook up some mince meat in a frying pan while boiling some pasta, have it timed so that the pasta is ready around the same time as the mince, add pasta to frying pan then squirt in some tomato ketchup and add a tea spoon of tumeric give it a good stir and then serve.

If you don't eat meat then try if with soya, or with just the pasta makes a great alternative to chips.

Ok I know it does not involve lemon, but it tastes fantastic.

Quite often when I cook pasta (OK so its corn or rice pasta) I have it tossed in either lemon or basil infused oil, or if I am feeling less decisive a combination of the two!

It is a very quick and delicious meal for those days you get in late and just need to eat

Mind you your recipie sounds good, especially for those of us who cant eat tomatoes, the other main stay of italian cookery. Rik - my Mum used to make Spag bol that way, sometimes with the addition on baked beans as well.

I like a pasta with crushed raspberries, olive oil, whatever herbs you have on hand, and halved cherry tomatos. Give it a go some time.

Never tried it with Raspberry's - sounds interesting

Sounds delicious, I love Raspberries

The lemon chilli one sounds good too, I might try serving that up to him indoors at somepoint and see what he thinks. We had liver and bacon last night but he wasn't too impressed, shame as it's one of my fave meals and v. cheap!

One of my favourate things to do with pasta is a sauce kinda based on lemon juice and other thigns useually its some very finely chopped onion and garlic and mushroom, frid in olive oil, then with a dash of worstershire sauce or tabasco, and lemon juice, then typically I'd throw in the cooked fusilli, and a goodly amount of grated mozarella and a bit of grated strong chedder actually going to do something like this tonight; only it'l also have a couple of sausages cooked and chopped in to cossettes, thrown in also plus, of course, a good amount of fresh ground black pepper

OK so now I am hungry!!!

Just had lunch from the bakery actaully, I may well do a tomato sauce this eveing for the pasta as I've a couple in teh fridge which are very* ripe

The next thing to check is the quality of the lemon. A cheap one does not produce very good zest or juice

Neither does a really elderly one that you found at the bottom of the fruit bowl under tons of other stuff that has obviously been the a *long* time but that you use anyway because the salmon and dill needed it...

Would lime work as well as the lemon?

Lime is a bit strong in flavour for my recipe. It's also more acidic than lemon juice, so I'm not sure how that would react in the cooking.

I had wondered if it would be But I do love lime in cooking ...

My limes tend to go no further than into a G&T

And I think thats a good place for them to go