Quick cook lunch

I often forget that I need to organise lunch for the munchkin and myself on my day off. He is quite happy to have baked beans but life does need variation, but pasta as a quick and easy standby is another meal that can become tiresome if different ideas aren't tried. Today was one of those days when I knew I was going to be coming home very close to lunch time due to a late morning appointment at the chiropractor but I hadn't really organised anything for lunch. We did make our regular weekly shop to the supermarket and meant to buy some pesto as a standby for pasta. However, I'm a list person and if it's not written on the list, it will probably not make it into our trolley. Lo and behold, pesto wasn't on the list. I also realised that I hadn't bought anything specifically for our lunch today. So as I drove home I had to start thinking up lunch and fast, and as any parent will know, a hungry toddler is not always a pretty sight to see. Pasta sprung to my mind, but I needed to vary the taste as pasta and cheese isn't the most dynamic of meals. So the meal below is a muddled together meal from our cupboard.

Lemony pasta (feeds 2)

175g pasta of your choice

Peas (I added these so that there was a vegetable in the meal and they were in the freezer!)

1 Lemon

Handful of hazelnuts

½ tsp chopped garlic (freezer)

Sprinkling of chopped parsley (freezer again!)

Parmesan (or other similar cheese)

25g butter

1. Get the pasta on to cook, after a few minutes add the peas so that they are all cooked together.
   
2. Meanwhile toast the hazelnuts in the oven, this takes a few moments and you need to watch them as they'll burn in seconds. Once they have come out of the oven, roll them in a clean tea towel to remove the outer skin. Put them into a pestle and mortar (or in my case plastic bag and rolling pin!) and bash up the hazelnuts.
   
3. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, put the butter into the saucepan and return the pasta. Over a low heat, zest the lemon into the saucepan, then slice the lemon in half and squeeze some of the lemon juice in. Add the hazelnuts, garlic and parsley and stir in well.
   
4. Once the pasta is on the plate grate over cheese and some black pepper
   

We did have shepherd's pie tonight and the meat was yummy again. I'll write up the recipe another day.