Springy Lemon Pasta

Here's the finished dish.

 Inspiration

My inspiration for this dish was the lemon slowly wilting away in my hanging produce basket.  That one lemon wasn't enough lemon flavor for my taste, so I added some bottled lemon juice.  I like my lemon dishes to be really strong on the lemon flavor, so you might want to only add one additional tablespoon of bottled lemon juice.  Definitely taste it as you go.

If you want to make this dairy-free, swap out the butter with your favorite oil.  You might also be able to use a non-wheat flour to make the roux gluten-free, but I haven't tried that.  Cornstarch or arrowroot are traditional thickeners you might try.

Ingredients 

Makes 4 servings

Starting off a roux

• 6 ounces pasta
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• pinch dried parsley (optional)
• 1.5 cups (almond) milk
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2T bottled lemon juice
• Couple handfuls of peas (frozen)
• handful of chopped/ripped spinach
• 4 slices of bacon, minced
• Salt and pepper

 

Instructions

Start your pasta in a large pot of boiling water.

In a large, deep skillet or saucepan, melt the butter and flour together over medium heat and stir it around and let it cook for a bit to get rid of the rawness of the flour. This is the start of a roux. 

Adding almond milk to the roux

Add the garlic and let it cook for 1 minute, then stir in the milk and ensure it gets evenly incorporated.
Zest your lemon directly over the pan so you get all of it in the dish and add the juice as well.  Let it cook for a bit to thicken up.  Stir in the peas and the spinach and let things warm back up and wilt down.

When your pasta is done, add that and the bacon and stir it all together.  Add salt & pepper to taste. I used a pretty heavy amount of pepper to ensure the dish wasn't just lemon tasting.

Verdict

Lemony-sharp and springy. 

Added lemon juice to the roux

With the creamy citrus and the green peas, this was a wonderfully springy dish to throw together.  Husband Jeff and I loved it, we both like really lemony dishes.  He wanted more protein with our meal (I served it with salads) and was disappointed that the rest of the bacon wasn't going into the dish.

I would make it again, maybe next time with some diced ham.  Could also add some steamed asparagus.  Another variation would be with salmon or shrimp, which could also include the bacon.  
 
This dish would have been pretty quick to pull together but I had to defrost and oven-fry my bacon first. But now I've got the rest of the pound of pre-cooked bacon in my freezer, ready to go into pretty much anything.

You could also add some freshly grated parmesan to the roux when you add the lemon juice for a lemon-alfredo sauce.