Pasta with Asparagus and Lemon

"Pasta with lemon and any green veg, here asparagus. Only three things to remember! First: cook your veg together with the pasta, adjusting the cooking time according to the type of veg and desired cookedness. Asparagus cooks in no time at all so add it only for the last two or three minutes. Swap asparagus for broccoli, peas, sliced beans, cauliflower, green cabbage and whatever else you deem fit to be tossed with pasta, butter and Parmesan. Second: melting lemon. I discovered that lemon pieces thrown into hot butter will go WHOOSH!!! then melt beautifully and create devastatingly lovely sauce, very intense so sometimes half a lemon will do. The lemon needs to be rindless, pithless and segmented unless you’d rather spit out bits later. Third: that reserved cooking water from under the pasta is not a myth, it actually does make up nice sauce. You need to drain the pasta et al into a colander here, rather than fish it out with slotted spoon as I sometimes do, but make sure the first glug is decanted into a cup not the sink. It then goes into the butter-lemon-Parmesan concoction and hey presto! sauce."

Preparation Time5 min

Cooking Time10 min