It is Sunday night while I write this. After spending almost an hour pondering my dinner for the night, I finally settled on shrimp and noodles. Hopefully, on Monday night it would be easier to decide on a meal. I am leaning towards a simple lemony spaghetti with thyme.
Lemony Spaghetti with Thyme
There are certain recipes that are almost like no recipe. I have had them for so long I mindlessly reach for them in time of need. This lemony spaghetti with thyme is one of those. It is perfect because all I need is thin slices of lemon slowly cooked in oil with fresh thyme while my spaghetti cooks. The cooked spaghetti goes in, I give it all a swirl and I am done. It is literally that easy. Trust me!
A lot of the cooking I do is based on trust. I trust myself to figure out the right configuration of ingredients at short notice. In my own way, I am a picky eater so it is extremely important to feel like I am eating good food. Otherwise, I won’t eat even if I am the one who made the bad food.
When I have moments when the food is really good and simple, I do my best to remember the order of work so that I can recreate the moment over and over again. Trust me! I have replicated this lemony spaghetti with thyme so much, I pretty much always have the ingredients on hands for a quick meal.
One thing I love about this recipe is the ease of customization.
I like to add in shreds of rotisserie chicken into the mix. Lately, Trader Joes has these marinated olives that make me salivate. The olives have made an appearance in the pan. The other thing I love about the lemony spaghetti with thyme is how well it keeps. I often make a big batch just so I can have it for breakfast topped with some quickly fried eggs.
Lemony Spaghetti with Thyme
Ingredients
- 1 serving Spaghetti*
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 1/4 lemon thinly sliced
- 1 sprig thyme
Instructions
- Bring some water to boil, add some salt and cook spaghetti according to instruction on the package. Drain and reserve a cup of pasta water
- In a saucepan, warm up the olive oil and add in the lemon slices. let the lemon slices cook on low heat until it shows signs of browning/caramelization
- Add in the thyme into the saucepan with the olive oil.
- Add in cooked spaghetti into the pan with about 2 tablespoons of pasta water. Swirl gently to allow the flavored oil coat the spaghetti
- If using olives or cooked protein and vegetables, add it into the pan and mix for about a minute. Serve the lemony spaghetti with thyme.
Notes
- I said one serving of spaghetti because serving size differs for different sizes of spaghetti.
