Buttery Lemon Pasta With Almonds and Arugula

I love pasta with arugula in many recipes. However, I never add it to the hot pan. Instead, I put the uncooked arugula in a large serving bowl, pour the cooked pasta on top, and then toss everything with tongs. I find this keeps the arugula an appealing bright green, with a more intense fresh arugula flavor.

Do as we do in Italy and don't drain the pasta--transfer it directly from the pot to the sauce using tongs or a spaghetti spoon. Besides avoiding a colander (one less thing to wash), you've got a pot full of hot pasta water on the stove, ready to ladle into the sauce as needed.

Americans seem to love adding grated Parmesan at the table, but Italians will advise that you'll get a creamier sauce by adding most of it in the pan just after stirring the pasta vigorously with the cooking water and turning the heat way down or off so the cheese doesn't clump. (Serve the remaining parmesan at the table, if you must.) Cooked arugula has an unpleasant mouth feel. I prefer to chop it like parsley and add it last for brighter color and a fresher, more peppery accent.

also good with slivers of preserved lemons

This is a fabulous combination of flavors. Had everything on hand that I needed to make it. Do the juicing/grating/zesting before you put the pasta in to boil. Took about 20 minutes to have dinner on the table. Will come back to this again. Think a bit of crisp prosciutto on top might be a nice touch next time I do it but not necessary at all. It is perfect just as it reads.

Milk solids are in the butter. As it heats the fats and “solids” separate. The solids are mostly made of proteins.

When heated high enough, the butter separates into clarified butter and milk solids. For browned butter you want the solids lightly browned. The clarified butter part can get much hotter without burning, so the result is butter with a nice toasty flavor.

I didn't have sliced almonds but did have a bag of organic California whole almonds that I chopped/sliced up as best as I could. Worked fine. Pantry staples after all! Simple and delicious.

My vote would be coarsely chopped pistachios with a runner-up of walnuts (also coarsely chopped). Pignoli would remind me too much of pesto (not that it's a bad thing, just not as unique), and I don't think pecans would hold up as well as the pistachios and walnuts. Just a personal preference, though -- I'm sure the recipe would be tasty with any of those!

Remove rosemary after 1 minute in pan

There is no mention of milk in the ingredients but in Step 2 your "Milk Solids" are turning golden brown. Before we go any further, can we get an explanation on what the solids are in your milk?

Brown on medium - as soon as the butter stops sizzling, and is "silent," check on it and if it's brown, or getting there, remove it from the stove. If you don't want it to continue to brown, pour it into a bowl.

This recipe is spot-on! The browned butter blends so well with the linguine, almonds, red pepper and rosemary—I used lemon juice and a little lemon oil to great success. I prefer this recipe to the one with olive oil and garlic-great change, Melissa Clark! Keep ‘em coming.

Did you chop the rosemary, or just remove the whole sprig after using it to flavor the sauce while cooking?

Butter contains milk solids. After the foaming stops, they will start to turn brown fairly quickly. Don’t have the heat turned to high or they will burn. Take pan off burner if they start to get dark brown.