It's not called 'Express' for nothing!

Pasta is one of the most likely ingredients to appear in any 'quick fix' family meal. We don't have it as much as we used to, but it is, nevertheless a faithful friend, always at the ready for moments when the family just have to be fed.

Having a very full day today, I was in a position to not only have much time to prepare, but not much time to shop either. Without a doubt, the obvious choice for us, with several family members sniffling and snuffling was the Linguine with Lemon, Garlic and Thyme Mushrooms from Nigella Express. The raw garlic must be good for killing germs, the parsley and lemon zest and juice are surely great sources of vitamin C. Of course, the primary reason for any meal must be flavour, and this one has it in bucketloads. An extra quick option was finding already sliced mushrooms, not usually something I would consider, but these were on special, being much cheaper than my usual choice of loose Swiss browns. Who am I to argue?

What I love about this recipe is that using cheese and cooking water gives a light sauce here, combining this with the extra virgin olive oil is a winner.

Linguine with Lemon, Garlic and Thyme Mushrooms

500g linguine
250g Swiss brown mushrooms (that's one bagful, sliced mushies)
4 Aus tbsp (80ml) extra virgin olive oil (I used Maggie Beer)
1 x 15ml tbsp salt flakes
1 small clove garlic, microplaned
zest and juice 1 lemon
4 sprigs fresh thyme, stripped (a generous tsp's worth)
freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
4 tbsp freshly microplaned Parmesan*


Cook the pasta according to packet directions.

Meanwhile pop the mushrooms, olive oil, salt flakes, garlic, lemon zest and juice, thyme, pepper and Parmesan into a bowl with half of the parsley.

When the pasta is cooked, remove a small cupful of cooking water, and drain the pasta. Return the pasta to the pot and pour all the prepared ingredients in with the pasta, toss it all about, add a a couple of tbsp of the reserved cooking water back to the pasta, toss once more, pour it all into the bowl and top with remaining parsley.

Serves 4-6

*Microplanning cheese gives you a really delicate light pile, I recon on needing double what you need if you grate it by more traditional methods. 2-3 tbsp grated.


Oh I know this looks a bit twee. I wanted lots of extra parsley, but it would have completely the pasta. It worked well as I served it up, everyone got a goodly serving of pasta without too much green stuff!

The biggest effort in preparing this is waiting for the water to boil. It's surprisingly filling for something that seems a light pasta. Gotta love that feeling of satisfaction.