Recipe: Lemon Pepper Farfalle

In our house we typically have pasta once a week. Most often it's some kind of noodle with red sauce and sausage, because we are carnivores and we love our Italian sausage. However, the routine is starting to get a little dull week after week. I wanted to still keep our staple easy and cheap pasta night but just with some new flavors. I didn't even have to leave the house for ingredients. I just used odds and ends we had on hand, and it was a quite successful and delicious meal!

Lemon Pepper Farfalle

You'll need:

at least 1/2 box of Farfalle (or your favorite noodles)
jarred, marinated roasted red peppers, chopped
jarred, marinated artichoke hearts, chopped
a small yellow onion (or white if you prefer), diced
a lemon - juice and zest
1/4 cup lemon juice (I used the bottled as well)
1 tbsp minced garlic
3 tbsps olive oil
1/1/2 tbsps butter
basil to taste
red pepper flakes to taste
salt and pepper to taste

I started out by getting my pasta water boiling. In the meantime I was able to prep all of my other ingredients.

I chopped my roasted red peppers and put them in a bowl.

I also chopped my artichoke hearts and put them in the same bowl with a little bit of their marinade.

To that bowl I added some lemon juice and mixed it all together.

Next, I diced my small onion and set it aside.

By this time my water was boiling, and I threw in the pasta.

I got a large pan heating up with the olive oil and then tossed in the onion and garlic for a couple minutes on their own.

Then I added in the bowl of ingredients and stirred everything around.

After zesting the lemon and squeezing in some fresh juice, I seasoned with the basil, red pepper flakes (just enough for a little kick, not blow your head off amounts) salt and pepper.

Everything sauteed for a few minutes until the past was ready to be drained. (The cook time for everything including the pasta and 'sauce' was about 12 minutes total).

After draining the pasta I poured it into the pan with everything else and added the butter.

I stirred everything around until the butter was melted and then served it up hot (topped with some parmesan cheese).

(not a wonderful picture but oh well)

I was a little nervous about what Phil would think, seeing as he loves his sausage so much (insert joke here). But he honestly was impressed and enjoyed it very much to my surprise and relief. It was definitely different than the norm and vegetarian to boot. We both completely emptied our bowls. Needless to say, I'll be making it again in the future.

Just thought I'd share in case any of you out there are looking for some different recipes. If you have any awesome homemades please feel free to share as well. We're always looking for something new.

:)