I tweaked the recipe of Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman. The title explains it – it’s uncooked sauce, no cream. If you can’t find unwaxed lemons, just scrub the skin before grating the zest. Deb suggests grating your parmesan – I use store-bought grated parmesan. 

8 oz/250 g dried spaghetti
1 lemon
1 cup (3½ oz/100 g) parmesan cheese, finely grated
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
Fresh basil leaves, torn or chopped

Boil spaghetti in well-salted water according to package directions. While it boils, finely grate skin of lemon into the large bowl you’ll use to serve your dish. Add juice of lemon (about 4 tablespoons). Finely grate the parmesan (or store-bought grated parmesan) on top. Add olive oil, about ½ teaspoon salt (and more to taste), and several grinds of black pepper and combine them with a whisk until very well mixed and as smooth as possible.

When spaghetti reaches the ideal texture, scoop out 1 cup of cooking water, set it aside and drain the rest. Quickly turn piping hot spaghetti to lemon-parmesan mixture in bowl and use tongs to toss it until all of the strands are coated. Don’t worry if the mixture seems too thick or sticky — first get the strands as evenly coated as possible. Add reserved pasta water, a tiny splash (about 1 to 2 tablespoons) at a time, tossing the whole time, only until the spaghetti looks glossy and lightly sauced. You might only need a single splash to achieve this.

Add basil leaves; toss to combine. If you finish each serving with a little extra olive oil, salt, pepper and parmesan, you’ll be glad you did.

Makes about 3 to 4 servings.