Artichoke, lemon & Parmesan pasta

Conveniently, the husband's working this evening so he's exempt from having to try anything new.  It's a win-win situation.  I don't have to get stressed trying to find a new recipe he'll try.  He gets to eat cheese on toast for tea.

So tonight I went for a quick store cupboard supper for one.  The recipe is a BBC Good Food one, which is fast becoming my resource of choice for a quick fix dinner.

Spot the artichokes

It got me wondering about store cupboard suppers and if I'd've ever considered making this dish if I'd not been on this mission.  The answer to that is no.  Partly because I probably never would've had artichokes in my cupboard before.  And in all honesty, if I wanted a quick supper, I'd just go for a bowl of plain pasta with butter, Parmesan and black pepper or a couple of beautifully poached eggs on toast.

This really tasty and simple supper - it literally has only one step to the recipe (although that's depending on how you want to lay the instructions out) - has got me thinking though, that I'll make more of an effort to make my lazy dinners tasty and interesting.  But only on nights when the husband isn't about for tea.  Which will be about once a year.

Serves 2


Ingredients

• 150 spaghetti
• 100g marinated artichoke hearts , drained and sliced
• 1 lemon , juiced and zested
• 25g Parmesan (or vegetarian alternative) , finely grated
• ½ small bunch basil , shredded
• olive oil

1. Cook the spaghetti following pack instructions. Put the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl with 1 tbsp olive oil, season really well and mix. Drain the pasta, keep 2 tbsp of the cooking water, then toss everything together.