Spaghetti with Lemon and Olives

I’ve just got home after a fun weekend in Amsterdam with Hubby and friends, Wilma, Tina, Marjo, Hans, Keys and Leo.  Tonight, I'm raiding the cupboards and thank goodness for pasta! This is a speedy meal that is jam packed with flavour and makes a simple, speedy pasta supper, I think the idea came from BBC Good Food at least 10 years ago. Bellisimo!  

Ingredients

500g fresh or dried spaghetti

5 tbsp olive oil

50g pine nuts

5 fat garlic cloves, peeled

A generous pinch dried chilli flakes

2 lemons

A handful parsley, chopped

100g pitted black or green olives, chopped if liked

5 tbsp grated fresh Parmesan plus extra to sprinkle over the dish before serving.

Method

Put a large pan of water on to the boil for the pasta. Then put the oil and nuts in a small pan and warm over a low heat, once they are toasted and golden remove  then crush the garlic into the pan and sprinkle in the chilli flakes too. Finely grate the zest from both lemons then cut one in half and squeeze out the juice. Roughly chop the parsley. Once the pasta water is boiling, add a generous amount of salt and the spaghetti and cook, according to packet instructions.

Drain the spaghetti and tip into a serving bowl. Pour over the garlicky oil and toss well with the lemon zest and juice, pine nuts,parsley, olives, Parmesan and plenty of salt and pepper. Add more lemon juice to taste – it should be fresh but not overly lemony. Serve with extra Parmesan.