Quick and Easy Recipe: Lemon Pepper Pasta with Capers

It has plenty of lemon zing, too, and capers for salt and tang. It's easy and cooks up while the pasta is boiling - try it and play around with your own ideas for flavor.

Try the Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper pasta - it's quite delicious!

Lemon Pepper Pasta with Capers

3 large garlic cloves, minced
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup cream
1/4 cup capers
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 8-ounce package Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper Pappardelle Pasta

Slowly cook the garlic and lemon zest in the butter and oil, in a heavy sauté pan over medium heat. Stir frequently to keep the garlic from browning. When the garlic is soft, add the broth and turn the heat to high. Simmer until reduced by at least one half, and add the cream and capers. Turn the heat back to medium and simmer until thick and syrupy. Taste and season.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to directions (2 quarts of salted water, 8-10 minutes). Drain and toss with a dribble of olive oil. Pour the cream sauce over and toss. Serve immediately.

(Image: Flickr member licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Re-edited from post originally published on September 21, 2007

I'm going to make this next week!!!

posted by Keisha Kornbread on September 21st 2007 at 8:16am
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This looks so dang good -- would be perfect tonight with Sopranos dvds.

posted by pinkofperfection on September 21st 2007 at 12:45pm
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Trying it tonight (sans the TJ pasta.... we're going to use fettucine noodles).

posted by alisa k on September 24th 2007 at 12:19pm
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alisa k... how did your recipe turn out? we don't have TJs here, so i was wondering how it would turn out with regular pasta

posted by sanna on September 26th 2007 at 1:53am
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I made this last night, but my Trader Joe's didn't have the lemon pepper pasta...I just used penne and stirred in juice of one lemon when I made the cream sauce. A nice simple and very easy pasta dish to make on a week night!

posted by soiebrute on October 3rd 2007 at 8:28am
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no TJ's here :( so I've made this twice (already!) with whole wheat angel hair pasta. Yummy! On the first attempt I added shrimp and the second I added some marinated grilled chicken. My preschoolers loved it, yet it still feels grown up!

posted by AnnieR on October 7th 2007 at 2:27pm
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I make a similar pasta--creamy without cream--by using grated campo de mantalban cheese (similar to manchego).

posted by ValHalla on September 25th 2008 at 7:25am
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We actually add Scallops to this dish.

posted by cweingarten on September 25th 2008 at 10:51am
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We don't have TJ's here either.. I bet it would be worth it and easy enough to make the Lemon Pepper pasta from scratch though...

Really looking forward to making this- thank you for sharing!

posted by miriamjudith on September 25th 2008 at 1:37pm
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Made this last night w/ Barilla fettuccine.
It was terrific.
Cooked the whole box, so I doubled the broth but kept the cream level at a little more than the 1/4 c. to keep the fat down.
I'd add the cracked pepper in a bit earlier in the process - but definitely hold off on the salt until the very end b/c the concentrated broth is quite salty.
A bit of lemon juice squeezed right at serving does wonders!
Thanks for the great recipe - definite keeper!

posted by crasht1224 on September 29th 2008 at 4:20am
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