Spaghetti With Lime & Arugula (Rocket)

Submitted by Sackville

"I love the zesty taste of this recipe, and the fact that it's so different. I never would have thought that lettuce could be good with pasta but it's lovely."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 4-6

ingredients

• 400 g spaghetti
• 2 limes (for zest)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• salt
• fresh ground black pepper
• 1 red chile, seeded and chopped
• 2 tablespoons capers packed in salt
• 8 slices prosciutto or 8 slices rindless bacon, chopped
• 150 g arugula, shredded (rocket)
• 2 tablespoons fruity olive oil
• 150 g feta cheese, marinated in oil

directions

1. Cook spaghetti in a large saucepan of rapidly boiling water until it is al dente.
2. Drain.
3. While that's cooking, remove the zest from the limes and finely shred to make one tablespoonful.
4. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.
5. If using bacon, add it to the hot oil first and cook until it starts to crisp before adding the lime rind, garlic, chilli and capers.
6. Cook for a minute or until fragrant.
7. If using prosciutto, stir it in at this point and cook for two minutes or until crisp.
8. Add the spaghetti to the pan and toss to coat and heat through.
9. To serve, toss the rocket and a bit of lime juice through the pasta and pile into serving bowls.
10. Top with the marinated feta, a little of its oil, and a generous grinding of black pepper.
11. Serve with a lime wedge on each plate, so people can add more if they like.

Reviews

[HeatherFeather]

Wow,this was amazing! Wonderful - both delicious and eye-catching. This was very easy to make, and was ready very quickly. The combination of ingredients was terrific. I had not expected my husband to enjoy this as it contained several ingredients he strongly dislikes (namely rocket and feta). However, he enjoyed this dish. Our only question was how much lime juice to add - I added the juice of just one of the limes, tasted it and thought it was plenty. Unless you really want a potent lime flavor, I recommend going light on the lime juice at first and keep adding until you are happy with the amount. If you don't like feta cheese, it is easy to omit (which I did for my husband), as it is added as a garnish at the end. Thanks for a real gourmet dinner!

 

[Roosie]

I thought this was definitely an interesting combo of flavors. I think this would be a really nice summer pasta dish when its typically too hot for pasta. I totally forgot the feta at the store, so we just grated parmesan on top, which went pretty well, but I think the feta would have been great. We thought the capers added a lot to the flavor. We used proscuitto ends that we cut up ourselves so the bits were fairly big (not paper-thin like at a deli) and went really well. We only used the zest of 1 lime (organic, so its a little stronger than supermarket limes) and it was even a little too limey. We also let the arugula wilt a bit. Overall, nice. Very unusual, for sure. Thanks, Sackville Girl!

 

[EeeGee]

I thought this recipe was delicious and different, very much restaurant quality. I could tell as soon as I started to saute the spices etc that I was going to like it and I did. I only used about half the stated amount of zest as the pile of zest two limes created seemed huge. I will definately make this again however next time I will try omitting the capers (I'm not really keen on them) and using either using bacon or getting my deli to cut the proscuitto thicker, the paper thin slices I had got a little lost. The rocket wilts like spinach and tastes delicious. I used a creamy tangy goats milk feta on top which was perfect. All that being said, it is very different and my boyfriend did not like it. I will make it again but just for myself.