cook: lemon spaghetti with roasted artichokes

I had been wanting to cook this New York Times recipe for a long while because I always have pasta like spaghetti, lemons, grated Italian cheese and canned or frozen artichokes on hand. 

On a Wednesday night, I knew I had to cook these stuffed mushrooms which had been in the fridge almost a week and a half, so into a 400 degree oven they went along with a can of artichokes which I paper toweled dry and drizzled with olive oil for 20 minutes.

While the vegetables were roasting, I zested a Meyer lemon and squeezed its juice and combined with grated Pecorino Romano and olive oil. Because I was using Pecorino and not Parmesan, I omitted the teaspoon of salt and added ground black pepper. I also chopped what basil I had left and some chives.

 

I boiled the spaghetti without salt too and a couple minutes less than the package directions. I didn't bother pouring the noodles into a colander to drain, but instead used my tongs to l ift them into the bowl of cheese, lemon, and olive oil. You can ladle pasta water from the pot into the bowl of pasta and paste if the noodles seemed too dry, and yep my noodles needed more hot pasta water to emulsify the sauce.

 

I kept tossing and swirling the pasta before topping it with the chopped herbs and roasted artichokes.

 

Hubs said thank you for dinner,

which is how I knew he liked this meal. Winner winner pasta dinner.