Vegetarian Lemon Tagliatelle With Broccoli & Feta

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A quick and easy pasta dish with a difference! If you're looking for something other than tomato or cream sauce-covered pasta, this vegetarian tagliatelle recipe is for you! Fresh and tangy, lemon tagliatelle pasta with broccoli is bursting with tart flavours from capers and fried lemon. With the addition of tenderstem broccoli and feta, this is both a healthy and exciting pasta dish, that can be made with any pasta shape and served warm or eaten cold if you have any leftovers!

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Why You Will Love This Broccoli & Feta Pasta?

• It's one of those pasta dishes that feels and tastes healthy to eat. With feta, lemon-infused olive oil and capers at work, it is salty and tangy, and you can almost feel your body absorbing all the vitamin C with every bite.
• It's not the saucy type of pasta that's messy to eat. It is elegant and it gives your tastebuds all the exciting and intriguing sensations!
• It's so easy to make! You can whip up this meal in 30 minutes (unless you're making fresh pasta yourself) and serve it on any weekday evening!
• Tagliatelle Pasta with Feta and Broccoli is a perfect summer dish, with tenderstem broccoli being in season in the UK between June and late autumn, but enjoyed by us all year round.

Should I Eat Lemon Slices in This Recipe?

What I love about this dish most is fried lemon. You don't need to eat it if you find it too bitter. I find that if I slice my lemon thinly enough, I don't even notice the bitterness. Even if you don't want to eat it, don't skip it. Adding it to the olive oil at the beginning infuses the oil and all the other ingredients with lovely fresh zinginess! Just pick out the lemon slices from the pasta before dishing it out into bowls.

Making Your Own Pasta?

If you want to make your own tagliatelle, here's our guide on how to make pasta at home. It's a bit of an effort, but totally worth it! We've made our tagliatelle with pasta bianca dough (just semolina flour and water), but egg pasta will work just as well!

Ingredients and Substitutes

• dried tagliatelle: can be substituted with spaghetti, linguine or pappardelle, or any other pasta shape that you enjoy. If you are using freshly made pasta in this recipe, increase it to approx 130g per portion.
• tenderstem broccoli (broccolini): sliced into thin strips lengthways. Lemon tagliatelle also goes exceptionally well with green courgettes. Try this dish with courgette slices. Don't parboil them though. Simply cook in the pan with lemons and shallots for approx. 8-10 minutes until softened.
• olive oil.
• lemon: thinly sliced.
• shallot: can be replaced with small brown or white onion.
• chilli flakes: we love Aleppo pepper.
• capers: if you can, buy small capers for this lemon tagliatelle recipe. Capers are bursting with sharp vinegary flavour, so you ideally want to use small little pearls that make into each bite and not overpower other flavours. Our favourite varieties of capers are surfines and capucines.
• parsley.
• feta.

Step-by-Step Method

STEP 1: Cook the Pasta: Start by cooking your pasta following packet instructions, if you've opted for shop-bought. However, if you're cooking fresh pasta, it shouldn't take longer than 1-3 minutes. You want it just cooked, slightly al dente.

Drain the pasta and run it under some cold water to stop the pasta from cooking further from the residual heat. Place cooked tagliatelle in a large bowl, drizzle with some olive oil and toss so that tagliatelle doesn't stick together. Set aside for later.

STEP 2: Cook Broccoli: Wash your tenderstem broccoli (broccolini) and cut each lengthways into thin long strips (resembling tagliatelle itself). Place the strips in a large pan with boiling water and cook for approx. 1-2 minutes until slightly softened but still retaining the vibrant green colour. Drain and set aside for later.

STEP 3: Put Everything Together: Thinly slice half of a lemon (you should have 6-7 very thin slices). Then thinly slice a large shallot.

Now we are going to put everything together! In a large non-stick frying pan, heat 4 tablespoon of olive oil on low heat. Add the lemon slices and shallots and gently cook for 5-6 minutes. Keep the heat low, infusing the oil, rather than frying the lemon and shallots. Add chilli flakes and capers, and stir. Then add broccoli and pasta and toss the pan to combine. Cook just enough to warm through.

Finally, crumble in the feta, add parsley and season with salt and pepper. Gently stir and divide between bowls. If you've sliced your lemon thinly enough, you may choose to eat it. But if you find it too bitter, just leave it - after all, other ingredients infused with all the fresh lemon flavours in the process!

What To Serve With Lemon Pasta?

This Vegetarian Tagliatelle is extremely flavoursome and doesn't require any side dishes to help with the flavours, but if you want a more substantial meal, serve it with:

• slices of Crusty Sourdough Bread or Baguettes.
• Quick Roasted Cherry Tomatoes.
• Raw Courgette Ribbon Salad with Honey & Earl Grey Dressing

Other Quick Pasta Recipes To Try

Hope you enjoy our Vegetarian Tagliatelle with Lemon, Broccoli and Feta. For other delicious pasta and noodle recipes, have a look at our favourites below:

• Easy Lentil 'Meatballs' and Spaghetti
• Seafood Squid Ink Pasta
• Lemon Ricotta Pasta

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