creamy lemon pasta

This is one of those really easy, really quick pasta meals that are a little out of the ordinary.  Am I the only one obsessed with matching pasta shapes to dishes?  I love having lots of different pasta shapes on hand so I can choose the exact one for each dish.

For this recipe, I like a traditional Greek pasta called plexoudes, or braids.  These are from Crete and mainland Greece, and they’re lovely.

The ingredients are simple:  lemon zest, cream cheese, white pepper, shredded myzithra (or parmesan) cheese, and plain Greek yogurt.  You can use Greek yogurt of any fat content:  0%, 2%, 5% or 10%.  I use  2% for most things.  If you omit the cream cheese, it will be too sour, because the lemon and the yogurt are both sour.

I use white pepper so that it blends in nicely with the sauce; you can use regular black pepper if you like.

Boil the pasta in lightly salted water until al dente.  Strain.  Stir all the other ingredients into the pasta and serve:  it’s that simple!

Creamy Lemon Pasta
Serves 2 as entree; 4 as side dish

250g plexoudes or other pasta shape
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
2 tbsp cream cheese
2 tbsp grated myzithra cheese (or parmesan)
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp white pepper
salt for boiling pasta

1.  Boil the pasta in lightly salted water until al dente; strain.

2.  Stir together all other ingredients with the pasta.  Serve.

Nutritional Information
per serving, i.e., of the total recipe

558 calories
9g fat (5g saturated, 4g unsaturated)
97g carbohydrate
21g protein
3g dietary fiber
21mg cholesterol (7% DV)
158mg sodium (7% DV)
302mg potassium (9% DV)
Contains a significant amount (+10% DV) of the following:
calcium, thiamin, niacin, phosphorus, selenium, magnesium, zinc, iron, riboflavin, folic acid, manganese, and copper.

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Caraway rolls
Classic French baguette
Santorini fava

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