Spaghetti with Fresh Herbs

This is a very simple, fresh tasting dish - perfect for a light weekend lunch or dinner. As the sauce is prepared while the spaghetti is cooking it really only takes about 20 minutes all up from kitchen to table. It's one of our favourites.

• Ready In: 35 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 350  g spaghetti (about 90g or 3 1/2 oz/person)
• 1  tablespoon salt

• Sauce

• 2  tablespoons olive oil (extra virgin if possible)
• 4  cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
• 60  g butter, chopped
• 1  bunch mixed herbs (e.g. any combination of basil, oregano, chives, sage, thyme, rosemary, dill, parsley)
• 1  lemon, juice and rind of, finely grated
• 1  cup  cream (low fat is fine)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, extra
• 2 -3  pinches fresh ground black pepper
• 80  g  freshly grated parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil.
2. Add salt and spaghetti.
3. Cook for 12-14 minutes.
4. In the meantime, prepare the sauce: First, remove any thick or woody stems from the herbs and discard.
5. Chop herbs finely- you should end up with about 3/4 cup of chopped herbs (a little more or less won't matter).
6. Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat.
7. Add garlic and cook until just beginning to colour.
8. Remove saucepan from heat immediately.
9. With the saucepan off the heat, add cream, butter, lemon rind and juice, herbs, salt and pepper and stir to mix well.
10. When the spaghetti is cooked to your liking, drain it well then add the drained spaghetti to the saucepan (the one with the sauce in it).
11. Return this saucepan to a low-medium heat and toss with two forks to combine the spaghetti with the sauce.
12. Cook gently for a minute or two until the sauce begins to thicken and most, but not all, of it has been taken up by the spaghetti.
13. Serve in bowls, drizzling over any remaining sauce.
14. Top with parmesan cheese.
15. Serve immediately.
16. Serve as is or with a crisp green salad and a nice cold glass of dry white wine!