Spaghetti Limone Parmeggiano

Another girls night in at one of our homes, where we cook and share a meal together. Last time was at mine: I did pork rice paper rolls, Thai green chicken curry, and the Eton Mess that featured in an earlier post. This time it was Ae, Aa, J, B, S et moi all over at N's house for a feed. As B said while giving the toast, "here's to a successful semester, to good friends and to good food".

I was blown away by the food (not that I doubted N at all) - fantastic spaghetti, cooked perfectly al dente. Having just returned from Italy, N wanted to recreate some of the cuisine, saying she preferred the simpler pasta sauces (couldn't agree more). This particular recipe was fantastic, the zing from the lemon plus the fresh basil and parmesan was a match made in heaven. I strongly suggest you try it.

The hostess also made a really, really brilliant salad (I sound like I'm raving now but seriously that salad was the best I'd had in ages) - baby spinach, thinly sliced red onion, goats cheese, strawberries, caramelised almonds, red wine vinaigrette. YUM.

Dessert: Tiramisu (tip: use only Mascarpone cheese, or if you must, only a little bit of cream), so good. Then tea and more wine (it's Maahhlboruugh daaaaarling!") to finish. Love these nights.