no-oven cooking

happy 5th of july, everyone! hope you had a glorious holiday - true to my word, we made no plans and had a very relaxing but productive day puttering around the apartment! 

our raspberries are really taking off this year!

our new chalkboard wall featuring our dinner menu! 

little kid BBQ dinner, minus my tomatoes...

there was one negative discovery yesterday: our oven isn't working! 

i really wanted to make provencal tomatoes to go with our dinner, but sadly preheating yielded no heat.

that got me to thinking about no-oven cooking for summer, since who really wants to heat up their oven (and their whole apartment) when it's almost 100 degrees out?

this lemon pasta from giada's everyday italian has long been one of my summer stand-bys, and it is so refreshing! it is delicious on its own, and works well as a base for adding other ingredients to jazz it up.

giada's lemon pasta (original recipe here)

1 pound spaghetti

2/3 cup olive oil

2/3 cup grated Parmesan

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

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  Directions
  Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the oil, Parmesan, and lemon juice in a large bowl to blend.
  Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Toss the pasta with the lemon sauce, and the reserved cooking liquid, adding 1/4 cup at a time as needed to moisten. Season with salt and pepper.Garnish with lemon zest and chopped basil.

now, i made this pasta dish for a potluck dinner during my internship in venice and it was a big hit with everyone, including my italian colleagues!

 it's hiding in the green bowl at the end of the table :)