Preserved Lemon Pasta
Updated April 14, 2026
Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.
- Ready In
- 25 min
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
Salt and pepper
1 pound spaghetti, linguine or other long pasta
¼ cup unsalted butter
3 garlic cloves, grated
⅓ cup finely chopped preserved lemons (see Tip for a shortcut version), plus 2 tablespoons of brine
1 cup grated Parmesan or pecorino, plus more for topping
Extra-virgin olive oil
Handful basil leaves
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 to 6 servings)
59 grams carbs; 37 milligrams cholesterol; 467 calories; 5 grams monosaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 17 grams fat; 3 grams fiber; 299 milligrams sodium; 19 grams protein; 2 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions until al dente. Drain and reserve about 1 cup of pasta cooking water.
- Step 2
Place the pot back on medium heat. Add the butter, garlic and preserved lemon and stir until the butter has melted. Add the pasta, preserved lemon brine, Parmesan and ½ cup of pasta cooking water and toss to coat the pasta; if it looks dry, add another ¼ to ½ cup of pasta cooking water to loosen it up. Taste and, if needed, season lightly with salt, season very generously with pepper, and give it a final toss.
- Step 3
To serve, divide among plates, drizzle with olive oil, top with more grated Parmesan and scatter basil leaves over the top.
To make a quick preserved lemon substitute at home, wash and dry 2 unwaxed lemons. (Unwaxed lemons won’t be shiny and their skin is a duller yellow; you could use regular lemons but make sure to scrub the skin well.) Remove any stems. Slice one lemon crosswise into thin rounds; discard any seeds. Juice the other lemon; you should get 2 to 3 tablespoons of juice. Place the lemon slices and any juice from the cutting board, the lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of fine sea salt into a small saucepan and place on low heat. Stir until the salt has dissolved and then cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring halfway through. Chop up the peel and flesh as instructed above, and add the liquid in place of the brine. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for 1 week.
Private Notes
Comments
New York Times, please listen whenever you give a grated cheese amount give it in weight not volume. How finely grated the cheese is can result in widely varying quantities for the same weight and thus if we are only using the volume, we may have far more or far less cheese than you envision. I communicated about this with Sam Sifton once and he certainly seem to agree and I just don’t get why you can’t make this a firm rule for all your recipes thank you
Very slightly strange, but really delicious. I forgot to add the brine but made up the saltiness with a big heap of extra Parmesan at the end. Quick and easy and I had all the ingredients on hand. Really recommended!
Will make again! Great for summer or a light dinner and I had everything on hand. It's nice to see a one pot recipe that interesting. I added chopped spinach and shallots (because I had them, not because the recipe needed it)
Next time, more garlic and no brine. Very salty. Will need to temper leftovers with maybe some kale. probably will sauté the garlic and lemon longer too.
This recipe attracted me because I had preserved lemons in the fridge from a previous recipe and wanted to use them. I don't do cheese, so I tossed in some nutritional yeast. I was missing fresh basil and didn't want to make a supermarket trip for one ingredient. So, I used dried basil and basil-infused olive oil. The results were great I still have more preserved lemon to use, so I will definitely make this again.
Felt, oddly for a garlic lover like me, there was too much of it. Maybe because it was grated.