Lemon Caper Pasta

This lemon caper pasta is creamy, briny, and surprisingly bright. The best part? It only requires 6 ingredients (that you most likely already have in your pantry), and 20 minutes making this the perfect weeknight dinner.

Listen, I am the queen of making extremely elaborate and complicated meals, in fact one of my favorite pasta dishes is a 4-hour Bolognese. However quite often nobody has time for that. This lemon caper pasta is perfect for those nights where you are short on time, but take out isn’t in the cards. I should also mention there is no chopping involved (yes for once there is no garlic in one of my recipes).

You’ll be surprised to hear that although this pasta is super creamy, there is no heavy cream. The whole point of this recipe is that it can be made from ingredients that you have on hand, hello pantry pasta. Instead the creaminess comes from making a béchamel sauce. Sounds complicated, but it is just flour + butter = roux + milk = creamy sauce without heavy cream.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED FOR LEMON CAPER PASTA

• Capers – I love these salty little things. Reserve the juice, you are going to need it to give this pasta that extra bright note.
• Lemons – You’ll need both the juice and the zest!
• Butter
• Flour
• Milk – Whole milk.
• Pasta– Any pasta works here. I love this recipe with bow ties, but whatever you already have on hand will work.
• Parmesan Cheese – The optional 7th ingredient for garnish.

HOW TO MAKE LEMON CAPER PASTA

I am going to be honest with you, this dish is delicious and worth making but if you don’t follow the below instructions it can give you a bit of a problem. This recipe calls to add not only lemon juice, but also capers to a milk based sauce. When you add an acid into milk it will curdle. As you can imagine a curdled sauce is NOT what you want here. To avoid this from happening and reduce the amount of curdling add the lemon juice when the milk is still cold. Did your sauce curdle anyways? Don’t fret, this happened to me the first time I made it and I continued to cook the sauce down whisking it vigorously.

Make the Sauce – In a medium pan on medium-low heat melt the butter and add capers. Reserve the juice for later. Just a heads up the capers might pop here and there so stand back or wear an apron. Cook for 5 minutes crushing some of the capers. Add flour so it creates a paste and cook, stirring constantly. The paste will begin to bubble, but don’t let it brown or burn – about 3 minutes. Add milk, caper juice, and lemon juice whisking to combine the roux. You need to add all these things while the milk is still cold. Cook until reduced and thick approx. 5-7 minutes.

STORING/REHEATING

Like with most pasta dishes, this lemon caper pasta is best enjoyed fresh. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days. When ready to reheat do not stick in the microwave, instead place in a pan with a splash of water, broth, or my favorite leftover pasta water. Pasta needs to be rehydrated for best reheating results. Heat on low until warmed throughout.

Looking for more pasta dishes? Then you have come to the right place! I suggest checking out the full pasta collection through the recipes section of this site. Or start with one of the recipes below!

Creamy Caramelized Shallot Pasta
Buffalo Chicken Pasta
Old Bay Garlic Shrimp Pasta