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This creamy lemon pasta recipe is simple and fast to make with everyday ingredients! The zesty lemon brightens the decadent parmesan sauce.
You may also enjoy this White Wine Cream Sauce for Ravioli or Best Penne alla Vodka Recipe.
Why you’ll love it
I’m so excited about this creamy lemon pasta sauce! I just love how easy and quick it is, and it’s great that you don’t need a ton of ingredients or time to make something so comforting. Butter, cream, a touch of garlic, parmesan, and lemon juice are always in my kitchen.
The lemon cream sauce nicely coats those tasty little tubes of pasta. You could say it’s inspired by pasta al limone, which you’ll find on restaurant menus, but it’s super simple to make at home. It makes a bright and impressive side dish or main course!
What you’ll need
- Pasta – rigatoni is the perfect complement for the sauce
- Butter and flour – to make a simple roux and give the sauce a thicker consistency
- Garlic – for a pop of savory flavor
- Chicken broth – or for a fancy touch, use a dry white wine like sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio
- Lemon – we’re using both fresh lemon juice and zest
- Heavy cream – for that silky, luscious texture
- Parmesan cheese – always grate your own!
Tools for this recipe
Check out Natasha’s favorite kitchen essentials, gadgets, and cookware!
- To zest the lemon, I use my handy Microplane zester/grater.
- I highly recommend grating your own parm. It tastes and melts better! I always keep a wedge in my fridge, and I use my Zyliss grater here.
- The is the cast iron skillet I use to make the sauce, and here is whisk pictured.
How to make creamy lemon pasta
This is an overview with step-by-step photos. Full ingredients & instructions are in the recipe card below.
Cook the pasta. Meanwhile, in a skillet, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux. Add in the garlic, broth, lemon juice, and zest, and bubble for a minute or so. Whisk in the cream. Simmer until thickened up as desired.
Stir in the parmesan, and remove from the heat. Season generously with salt and pepper. Toss with the drained pasta, and garnish with extra parm and chopped fresh parsley if you like.
Pro tip
If the sauce gets too thick, simply add a little bit of the pasta water to thin it out.
Substitutions and variations
- I used rigatoni, but feel free to sub with whatever pasta you’ve got on hand. Penne would work great as well.
- I don’t recommend subbing anything else for the cream in this recipe. The citrus is very likely to curdle the sauce, and heavy (or whipping) cream can withstand it due to the higher fat content.
- You could add some shrimp or cooked chicken (like rotisserie chicken) if you wanted to add a protein to this dish.
What to serve with creamy lemon pasta
- This pasta is delicious as a side dish. Try serving it with my Parmesan Crusted Chicken, Easy Pan Seared Pork Chops, or Easy Pan Seared Salmon.
- If it’s your main event, I recommend serving it alongside a light salad like my Super Simple Parmesan Arugula Salad.
- Or you could make breadsticks, garlic knots, or my Cheesy Garlic Bread.
Leftovers and storage
- This pasta recipe is one I highly recommend eating fresh, but if you do have leftovers, store for 3-4 days in the fridge and reheat over a low heat.
- I don’t recommend freezing leftovers.
Will you give this pasta with a lemon cream sauce a try? Questions? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love if you left a star rating and review, or tag me on Instagram.
Creamy Lemon Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 ounces uncooked pasta rigatoni or penne recommended
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 tablespoon flour
- 1 small clove garlic minced
- 1/4 cup chicken broth/veg broth or dry white wine
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice + zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1 cup heavy/whipping cream
- 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Garnish: fresh parsley & extra parm optional
Instructions
- Boil a salted pot of water for the pasta and cook it al dente according to package directions.
- When the pasta is about 10 minutes away from being done, add the butter to a skillet over medium-high heat. Once it melts, sprinkle the flour in and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring fairly often.
- Add in the garlic, followed by the broth (or wine) and lemon juice + zest. Let it bubble for 1 minute.
- Whisk in the cream and cook it for a few minutes until the sauce has thickened up to your liking.
- Stir in the parmesan cheese and take the skillet off the heat. Season with salt & pepper as needed (I am generous with both).
- Add the drained pasta to the skillet and toss until coated (I like to add a tablespoon or so of the pasta water to the sauce prior to draining it, especially if it's become a tad too thick). Garnish with more parmesan and a bit of chopped parsley if desired. Serve immediately.
Notes
- This pasta makes 4 reasonably-sized portions with plenty of sauce, but if you’ve got really hungry people and you’re not serving it with anything else, I would double the recipe. Serves 2-4 depending on how much people eat.
- I do NOT recommend subbing the heavy cream for anything with a lower fat content (e.g. half-and-half or milk) because the lemon in the sauce is very likely to curdle it, and you’ll have to add more flour to thicken the sauce.
- This pasta recipe also appears in the Salt & Lavender: Everyday Essentials cookbook.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This is amazing and super quick and easy! Tastes like I went out to a restaurant. I would definitely double the recipe!
I’m so happy you enjoyed it!! Thanks for taking the time to write me a comment, Kamilah 🙂
I will be making this for meatless Monday! LOVE lemon and can’t wait to try. I will probably have to use less heavy cream as I have a heart condition and 19 grams of saturated fat is the entire days amount! I may use the pasta water and extra flour. Any other suggestions, since you do say not to use fat free half and half?
Thank you!
I would add some of the pasta water – that is a good idea! Hmmm you could try making a thicker roux perhaps? Maybe add a bit more white wine or chicken broth? You could simmer it for a bit longer so it thickens up more too if you go with less cream. Let me know how it goes! I hope you enjoy it, Joanne!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I looked for a prepared lemon butter pasta sauce at the grocery and couldn’t find it. Doing a web search I found your website & recipe. I made it with al dente Barilla angel hair protein pasta, the texture was great. My husband liked it a lot. Will plan to make again.
I’m so glad you both enjoyed it! 🙂
So good!
Thanks so much!!
Just made this and love it just realized I have some mushrooms in the fridge is there a way to add it to the pasta next time? Maybe with the garlic?
Sure. I’d just make sure that the water is all cooked out before you go on with the recipe so you don’t water down the sauce. You could always sauté the mushrooms then add the flour after. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Can you make this earlier in the day and then reheat?
Unfortunately, I don’t think this is a good dish for doing that. You could maybe try making just the sauce and then reheat it on low heat, but I’d definitely toss with the pasta just before serving. Cream sauces are notoriously finicky, and they can separate quite easily when reheating (and/or go kinda dry).
I have been seeing this recipe pop up every once in a while and I have been very excited to make it. Made it last night and my family loved it. I even made a gluten free version of it too that was amazing. Thanks for sharing. I love anything with Lemon but this will be on permanent rotation in our house!
Yay! That’s awesome. I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Lisa.
Are the Nutrition Facts per serving or for the whole dish? This was wonderful by the way!
That’s great that you enjoyed it! 🙂 It’s per serving (4 servings total for this particular recipe).
This was INSANELY GOOD! I used 16oz of rigatoni because I think mine were smaller. Also began by browning chicken thighs in my fan so when I made the roux I had that additional flavour already in the bottom of the pan. Definitely save at least a quarter cup of pasta water and lots of black pepper. Soooo yummy!
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it!! 🙂
Made this tonight for myself and two kids! They both loved it! So quick and easy. Next time I will make it to go with chicken cutlets!
I’m so happy you all enjoyed it! Thanks so much for commenting! 🙂