Sprout & Pea

One of my favorite pasta dishes is spaghetti limone and one of my favorite places to order it is Lil’ Frankies.  Being a lemon and cheese addict, this dish hits the spot every time.  Yes­ter­day was a cold, rainy Sun­day and I was crav­ing a warm, sat­is­fy­ing meal but as usual I wanted to make some­thing  healthy.

On my way home I picked up some quinoa lin­guine and some fresh parme­san and man­aged to make a tasty and pretty healthy ver­sion of this dish with a few other ingre­di­ents I had lay­ing around the house.  I had some pine nuts left over from make your own pizza night, so I decided to toast them and crush them and mix in for a lit­tle added fla­vor and it topped this dish off great.  Here is how I made this…

1 box quinoa lin­guine
extra vir­gin olive oil (enough to coat small pan)
2 cloves minced gar­lic
1/​2 cup fresh grated parme­san cheese
juice of 2 lemons
1/​2 tbs lemon zest
1/​4 cup pine nuts
salt and pep­per to taste

Bring pot of water to boil and cook quinoa pasta accord­ing to direc­tions on the back (about 6–7 min­utes). While pasta is cook­ing, place pine nuts on small pan on medium heat and let toast for about 15 min­utes or until lightly browned (toss­ing occa­sion­ally so both sides get toasted). Let cool and finely crush pine nuts (I like to place them in a plas­tic bag and smash them with a can). In a sep­a­rate small pan, coat pan with olive oil and add gar­lic and let cook on medium heat for a few min­utes. Strain water from pasta, place pasta back in pot and mix in all ingre­di­ents. Top with a lit­tle extra parme­san and serve.