Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Boil a pot of heavily salted water for your pasta. Cook the pasta, timing it to add straight into the sauce at the end. If you drain the pasta before the sauce is ready, reserve a mug of the pasta water first.
- Heat the olive oil and butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat and add the onions.
- When sizzling, lower the heat to medium-low and cook for 4-5 minutes until soft.
- Add the garlic and pepper and cook for another minute or two. Ensure nothing is browning; turn the heat to low if needed.
- Add the tomato paste and whisk to combine, cooking for a minute or two.
- With the heat still low-medium, add the cream and whisk to combine evenly. The cream should only gently simmer; adjust heat to low if needed.
- Add the lemon juice and whisk in quickly. If you find it curdles your sauce, you can add it at the end with the cooked pasta.
- Add the finely grated parmesan in three separate additions, whisking in between to ensure it melts.
- Add your pasta straight into the sauce with a splash of pasta water (about ¼ cup). Let the pasta bubble gently in the sauce for a minute or two to thicken. Loosen with more pasta water if needed.
- Taste for seasoning and add salt as needed.
- Serve and enjoy. You can add extra parmesan and black pepper, or fresh basil leaves.
Notes
Onion: If you are in the USA, your onions are large. My half onion was about 70 grams.
Timing: Start the sauce 3-4 minutes into the pasta cooking time if using dried pasta that takes 11-12 minutes to boil.
Pasta Water: Always reserve some pasta water before draining. Add pasta directly from the pot to the sauce to have pasta water readily available.
Sauce Consistency: This sauce is meant to be quite 'saucy'. The pasta will soak up the sauce as it sits. It may seem like too much sauce initially, but it reduces as it sits.