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You are here: Home / Recipes / Pasta / Easy Lemon Garlic Pasta

Easy Lemon Garlic Pasta

April 28, 2016 By Shannah Coe 21 Comments

Weeknight dinners don’t have to be boring. In less than 30 minutes, you can have a delicious pot of Easy Lemon Garlic Pasta on the table! Your whole family will appreciate this tasty lemon pasta dish! 

It seems like everyone has insane schedules these days! Quick and easy recipes are a key to getting everyone around the dinner table. This easy lemon garlic pasta is packed with flavor in an easy to follow recipe that is ready super fast.

Easy Lemon Garlic Pasta

This recipe requires only a few simple ingredients…most of which you already have at the house! Be sure to choose a high quality olive oil and Parmesan to use when making the lemon garlic butter sauce for pasta since they help make up the bulk of the flavor in this dish.

Lemon Garlic Pasta Sauce

For this pasta, I use with a spaghetti or angel hair pasta. My kids definitely prefer the super thin texture of the angel hair but I prefer to make lemon garlic spaghetti over angel hair pasta. You choose your favorite ๐Ÿ™‚

Some other variations of this recipe that would be delicious include:

  • Lemon garlic capellini (look for capellini solds in little pasta nests)
  • Garlic shrimp pasta with lemon
  • Lemon garlic chicken pasta
  • Parmesan garlic spaghetti with mushrooms and lemon
  • Lemon garlic kale pasta

Lemon Garlic Pasta

One thing that really helps take the flavor of this dish up a notch is lightly toasting the spices in a little bit of olive oil along with the garlic. Lemon zest from fresh lemons really help give the pasta that citrus punch.

Easy Lemon Garlic Pasta Sauce

When you are boiling your pasta, be sure to save about 1/4 cup of pasta water before draining the noodles. The starchy water from the pasta will help your lemon garlic butter sauce for pasta come together perfectly and cling to the pasta. This step ensures your lemon garlic pasta is perfect every time.

Delicious Lemon Garlic Pasta

My family loves this recipe and I love how simple and easy it is to make. It is so perfect for a quick weeknight meal and, since it is pasta, it is a great way to feed a crowd too. Want to add some protein? Shrimp and pasta go perfectly together. Or, try lemon garlic chicken pasta!

Simple Lemon Garlic Pasta

If you want to try a lightened up version of this dish, be sure to check out my recipe for easy lemon garlic vegetable noodles. The recipe has the same lemon garlic butter sauce for pasta from of this recipe but with zucchini noodles in place of traditional poasta.

Lemon Garlic Vegetable Noodles (Zoodles)

If you make this easy lemon pasta recipe or any other recipe from the blog, I’d love to hear about it! Let me know in the comments or snap a photo and tag it #MySuburbanKitchen on Instagram or Twitter. Also, try these other great dinner ideas for tonight.

If you enjoyed this Easy Lemon Garlic Pasta recipe, check out these other great pasta dinner ideas:

  • Summer Squash Pasta Salad with Prosciutto 
  • One Pot Greek Chicken Pasta
  • One Pot Spinach Artichoke Pasta
  • Spinach Sausage Pasta

What you’ll need for this recipe:

  • Large pot
  • Strainer
  • Skillet

5 from 5 votes
Easy Lemon Garlic Pasta
Print
Easy Lemon Garlic Pasta
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
20 mins
 
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Pasta
Keyword: lemon garlic, pasta
Servings: 6
Calories: 438 kcal
Ingredients
  • 1 box angel hair or spaghetti
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tsp lemon zest
  • 5 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
  • 5 Tbsp butter
  • 2 cups baby spinach torn
  • 1/3 cup grated Parmesan
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add 1 Tbsp salt and pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions for al dente. Reserve 1/4 cup pasta water and then drain pasta.

  2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and lemon zest. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper and cook for an additional minute.

  3. Add butter to pan and, once melted, add baby spinach, pasta, reserved pasta water and lemon juice. Once spinach begins to wilt, stir in Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

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Filed Under: 30 Minutes or Less, Cooking, food, Main Dishes, Pasta, Recipes, Special Diet, Vegetarian

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Comments

  1. Eloise says

    May 9, 2016 at 12:59 pm

    that looks super delicious, I’m going to make this tonight!

    Reply
  2. Shannon says

    February 24, 2017 at 10:03 am

    Made this last night along with some grilled chicken. It was good. Will have to double or even triple the recipe next time as we like our pasta saucy. I added capers and artichoke hearts. This is pretty much the same sauce made for chicken piccata.

    Reply
    • Shannah Coe says

      February 24, 2017 at 12:39 pm

      Glad you enjoyed this! The capers would definitely be delicious.

      Reply
  3. Gary Loewenthal says

    June 15, 2017 at 1:06 am

    Delicious! My wife and I loved this. I made a version with vegan Parmesan, and randomly added some broccollini.

    Reply
    • Shannah Coe says

      June 18, 2017 at 9:42 pm

      I am so happy you enjoyed it! I use nutritional yeast in place of Parmesan and it is delicious.

      Reply
  4. Mia Rogers says

    July 30, 2017 at 8:49 pm

    We made this tonight and it was great. The subtle flavors all blended nicely in the pan. Definitely will make it again. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Shannah Coe says

      July 31, 2017 at 8:42 am

      I am so glad you enjoyed it! This is one of our favorite easy dinner recipes.

      Reply
  5. Tori says

    August 27, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    Made this for dinner tonight, was fast and tasty! Looking forward to playing around with adding protein the next time I make it.

    Reply
    • Shannah Coe says

      August 27, 2017 at 9:18 pm

      I am so happy to hear you enjoyed it! I love how fast it is too.

      Reply
  6. Jen says

    December 23, 2017 at 11:52 pm

    Delicious! I made it with fresh pasta and topped it off with slow cooker garlic lemon rosemary chicken thighs. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  7. My says

    April 13, 2018 at 2:07 am

    Thank you for sharing. Followed recipe. Used Penne pasta, added more garlic 10-12 garlic minced, more lemon, more Italian seasoning, chili flakes, and definitely more spinach. Next time I’ll add chop red bell pepper for color. Very tasty, quick. Nice side dish for fish and chicken.

    Reply
  8. MyMoor says

    April 26, 2018 at 1:31 am

    I was looking for a recipe for Pasta. What caught my eye is … Garlic Pasta. Followed recipe …. but added more garlic, more Italian seasoning and more spinach ( they wilt during cooking process ) and less butter.
    Simple …. quick …. Delicious.

    I used the same recipe for Zucchini Zoodles .. but added chop red bell pepper for color. Another Delicious … quick side dish.

    Thank you for sharing

    Reply
    • Shannah Coe says

      May 1, 2018 at 7:08 pm

      So glad you liked it! You can never go wrong with more garlic and more spinach in my book!

      Reply
  9. Kathy says

    May 7, 2018 at 1:15 pm

    This is my all-time favorite pasta recipe. I tried to sign up for the newsletter but said that my email was invalid or something.

    Reply
    • Shannah Coe says

      May 8, 2018 at 3:54 pm

      Thanks so much for the compliment! Please email me at mysuburbankitchen @ gmail.com with your email I will be happy to sign you up for the newsletter on my end.

      Reply
  10. Vera Pereira says

    August 28, 2018 at 8:10 am

    5 stars
    Easy recipe

    Reply
  11. Libby says

    December 3, 2018 at 11:11 pm

    5 stars
    Quick and tasty! Subbed out for vegan butter/cheese. Also tried it with spaghetti squash instead of pasta with great results

    Reply
  12. teresa paddock says

    January 9, 2019 at 6:11 pm

    5 stars
    Made this as a side for New Years Eve and it was hit!! Everyone love it!!!!

    Reply
  13. Ajoke says

    September 25, 2019 at 4:01 pm

    5 stars
    Your beautiful hunger-inducing image led me to your page. Great recipe too!
    Ajoke recently posted…Quick Spaghetti BologneseMy Profile

    Reply
  14. Jenn says

    April 21, 2020 at 5:20 pm

    So delicious!! I added extra garlic and lemon juice with fresh grilled chicken.

    Reply
  15. Stephanie says

    April 27, 2020 at 9:00 am

    5 stars
    This is delicious and it has been added to my favorites list. I’ve made it once with shrimp just added them with the garlic. Came out great

    Reply

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About Me

Hi, I'm Shannah! Welcome to My Suburban Kitchen, where you'll find tons of recipe ideas including family friendly dinners, sinfully delicious desserts and even Paleo and Whole30 recipes. I love spending time in our kitchen and also share little glimpses of my life as a wife to one awesome Mathlete and working mom to 2 cute kids! I hope you'll grab a seat at our table and enjoy your time in the kitchen with us.

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