yesterday wotw stopped by to pick up some products i ordered for her from arbonne and to give me a new lemon zester she had gotten for me. as if she knew, pioneer woman put up a recipe for baked lemon pasta that called for lemon zest. but, since i am a good girl eating healthy and avoiding heavy cream and bacon i have not been looking at her cooking. as i promised. luckily, cakeissweet (formerly called gohan and also known as my sister in law) linked me to pw cooks because she had seen it and knows of my love for lemon.
i really could not justify doing the whole baked with sour cream thing (read: i had no sour cream and it was already 5:30) but i had what was needed for the “if you are in a hurry” version she mentions at the beginning of her post. funny enough, i had the cream on hand because i had made my version of her quiche for mothers day. (if you are wondering my biggest change is the cheese. i use a mild cheddar which i found to be a better fit.)
her “in a hurry” version called for parsley which i don’t have but my front garden is being totally taken over by my sage which is thriving this spring so i used that. i love sage. i love lemon. i love butter. i love cream sauce. it was hard for this recipe to go wrong. i cooked up some brown rice pasta (gluten free of course for the sake of the bean) and i threw the sauce together and it took all of about ten minutes total to make. now that is a major bonus in my book. and holy smokes my new lemon zester is out of this world good. i can’t believe i doubted the joy of a better lemon zester. everyone needs this kitchen gadget. thank you wotw for changing my life. in fact, the zester is so good the first thing i did when i was done zesting was pick up the phone and call wotw and tell her how thankful i was. i tend to be terrible about thanking people and i decided spur of the moment phone call was more successful then the thank you cards i intend to write and send but never get to. phew, side track over.
i made a spinach and red pepper salad to eat as my healthy accompaniment to the cream sauced pasta but i liked the sauce so much i ended up dumping my salad into my bowl with my pasta and essentially dressing it with the sauce and eating it with the pasta. it was so good. sooo soooooooo goooooooood.
in fact, it was so good i could not stop myself from making it again today for lunch. i used more olive oil and less butter, i added about 4 table spoons of milk instead of a 1/2 cup of heavy cream, i put it on buckwheat gluten free pasta and i mixed my baby spinach in so it was kind of a pasta salad type situation. it was GOOD. but, i do heart lemon. love love love it. if you love lemon, give it a shot.
lunch is served!
