emily's easy eats: Lemon Garlic Spaghetti

This is another recipe I found on Pinterest. The first time I cooked it, I used way too much lemon, and it was really strong, so good lesson, stick to the recipe.

Here's what you will need:

4 ounces of dry spaghetti;

1/4 cup grated Parmesan;

2 tsp. olive oil;

1 clove of garlic;

1/2 lemon;

2 T pine nuts (I don't use pine nuts, we had a bad food poisoning experience once);

5-6 basil leaves;

Black pepper

First thing, prepare your garlic. Remove it from the skin, and cut it however you see fitting. I mince, you may want to only chop. Up to you.

Next, add your olive oil into your pan.

I highly suggest you add the oil first. From personal experience.

Then you can add your garlic.

~~I totally messed up here when I cooked it.~~ Silly me had the burner on, boiling the water for my spaghetti, but didn't realize what burner I had on, and where I was placing things. So, I burned my garlic.

No joke, it was almost instantly that the garlic went black. I didn't want that to happen again, so I went look for some tips, and found this website that gives tips on how not to burn your garlic. What's the first tip? Oh weird.

"Don't heat the oil too high. Olive oil is best for sauteing garlic. Heat the oil to a medium setting. If your oil begins too smoke, it is too hot. An oil heated on a lower setting for a short saute period will help you get perfectly sauteed garlic." Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2974112

I found this tip really interesting, it was something I would have never thought about; "Use a copper pan. Copper pans are great for sauteing. They typically have a thicker bottom than most pans, which prevents the cooking surface from overheating."

Then there is this genius tip, "Don't leave your garlic unattended. There is a very short period of time between garlic that is perfectly done and garlic that is burned and bitter. Keep an eye on your garlic while it is cooking, stirring occasionally to ensure that it is evenly sauteed. As soon as it develops a light golden brown color, remove it from the heat and transfer to another surface. Just removing the garlic from the heat may not save it from burning, as the pan will still be hot and continue to cook the garlic."

Anyway, moving on.

While you are watching your garlic, you can start cooking your noodles.

As previously stated, I don't cook. I haven't ever cooked. When I got married, and still, I can only do noodles. My husband introduced me to adding oil into the boiling pot of water before adding the noodles. Apparently this is to make it so the noodles don't stick together. I was curious if it really did anything, so I went snooping. According to Laura Schenone, author of the The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken, adding oil to your noodles does not prevent them from sticking together.

In fact, this is what she has to say about it, “Oil in pasta water just floats on top, and when you drain the pasta, most of it will go down the drain,” she explains. “But you’ll also get some of it on your pasta.” This coating of oil makes it harder for the pasta to absorb any sauce added later. The only instance when oil might be useful is with filled pasta; it makes the filled bits less likely to open as they collide in the boiling water. Otherwise, you’re just wasting good oil."

Well then, it's settled. No more oil in the pasta water.

Thank you Laura.

When the noodles are done, strain them. Don't do anything with them yet, but don't let them sit too long because then they stick to each other and don't absorb the other ingredients very well.

When your garlic is done (you want it to be lightly browned around the edges) add the oil and the garlic chunks into a bowl with the cheese, and the pine nuts if you have chosen to use them.