The lemon pasta, perfected

Five ingredients, one pan, endlessly repeatable. This is the one we come back to when it’s late, when we can’t agree on anything else, when the fridge is nearly empty. It has saved more evenings than we can count.

The method

Pasta on. While it cooks, zest and juice a lemon into a wide bowl with a good amount of finely grated parmesan and a slick of olive oil. Loosen it with a ladle of the starchy pasta water until it turns into a loose, glossy sauce.

Drain the pasta, keeping a little more of that water back. Toss everything together off the heat, adding water a splash at a time until it’s silky rather than claggy. Black pepper, more cheese, and eat it immediately, standing up, straight from the pan if you must. We usually do.