Need to Whip Up a Quick Meal? Try This 5-Ingredient Lemon Pasta

What do you do when you want something homemade, but don’t want to spend two hours and more ingredients than you can count on both hands? I love cooking, but there are just some nights when I just want to whip up something tasty, easy and fresh.

I thought that was too much to ask. I was wrong. Local grocery brand Foodland now has the answer to my easy-meal woes with a new lineup of meal ideas that launched at the end of March. Foodland 5 features a new recipe each week that uses only five ingredients, and—the best part!—offers all five of those ingredients on sale for that week.

SEE ALSO: Streamline Weeknight Dinners with Foodland 5

Last week, HONOLULU Magazine and Foodland launched the Foodland 5 Recipe Contest, inviting readers to submit their own recipes. This five-ingredient lemon pasta, submitted by Audrey Furukawa (thanks, Audrey!), was exactly what I was looking for in a simple, satisfying meal. It was super flavorful, shockingly easy to make and featured one of my favorite foods: pasta!

Photo: Marisa Heung

This recipe is great because you can customize the ingredients to your own tastes. I personally am a huge, huge fan of lemon, cheese and basil and found myself adding more to the dish. There’s only one Golden Rule here: Don’t overcook your pasta.

Photo: Marisa Heung

5-Ingredient Lemon Pasta

Yield: 6 servings

Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 lb. pasta of your choice (I used spaghetti)

Juice and zest of 3 lemons

2/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup herbs of your choice (I used basil)

3/4 cup parmesan cheese, finely grated

Instructions

1. Cook pasta until al dente. While the pasta is cooking, whisk olive oil, herbs, lemon juice, lemon zest and parmesan cheese together in a large bowl.

2. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of pasta water. Add the pasta water to bowl and mix well.

3. Toss pasta with the sauce until evenly coated. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with herbs and more cheese, if desired.