Meal prepping over the weekend? Try this easy garlic lemon butter sauce for pasta and stir fries.
This rather simple concoction of minced garlic, fresh lemon juice, parsley and lots of butter is actually a total flavor bomb.
Team it up with some of your favorite pasta, and you’ve got yourself a pasta dish that’s naturally creamy, even without any heavy cream or cheese added in.
While I have my roots in India, I have tried recreating foods from a lot of different cultures in the past.
Italian flavors in particular, have my heart. They’re so simple and yet so flavorful.
My love for Italian food reflects in my previous recipes- my basil gremolata, garlic tomato confit, my lemon infused olive oil and so much more.
And being the condiment queen that I am, I thought of batch-making a nice, Italian style pasta sauce too- and here we are!
Jump to:
- What's So Great About the Recipe?
- Ingredients For the Garlic Lemon Butter Pasta Sauce Recipe
- How to Make Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce
- Substitutions & Variations
- 💭Top Tip
- Equipment
- How to Store Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce
- Tips & Tricks to Nail the Recipe
- How to Use Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce
- FAQs
- Related Recipes
- Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce for Pasta
What's So Great About the Recipe?
The versatility of this delicious lemony sauce is a big win in my books.
It isn’t just a great pasta sauce- it is so much more.
I love adding some of my homemade garlic bread seasoning into it, and turning it into a delicious lemon garlic dipping oil to go with my bread!
Best of all, it is quick and easy to make.
Ingredients For the Garlic Lemon Butter Pasta Sauce Recipe
You’ll need just 5 simple ingredients to make lemon garlic butter sauce from scratch.
Butter: Unsalted butter is the best choice for this recipe, as it gives you more control over the flavor. But of course, you can also use salted butter instead if that’s what you prefer.
Lemon: Choose fresh, unblemished lemon. You’ll need the juice from them, and also a bit of the zest for some extra lemon flavor.
Garlic: Fresh garlic cloves are the hero ingredient of this dish. While garlic powder does work as a substitute for fresh garlic in most recipes, I would suggest sticking to the fresh version for this one.
Parsley: To add some herby deliciousness and a nice pop of color to the sauce, I also added some chopped fresh parsley.
Seasonings: I kept the seasonings super simple and just used a bit of salt and pepper.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce
Making this lemon butter garlic sauce is super easy. Once you have all the ingredients ready, here’s what you’ll need to do.
Melt the butter in a large skillet or a saucepan over medium heat. Add minced garlic, parsley, salt and pepper.
Take it off heat, add in the fresh lemon juice and a bit of lemon zest if you want to, and mix it well.
That’s it! You can then use this sauce with whatever pasta you like and enjoy a flavorful buttery, garlicky lemon pasta recipe.
Substitutions & Variations
- Want to bring some extra Italian flavors into this delicious buttery sauce? Add in some dried herbs like rosemary, oregano and thyme.
- Want a kick of heat into the lemon sauce? Add some red pepper flakes into the mix.
💭Top Tip
If you want to bring some extra cheesiness and creaminess into the lemon pasta, you can always grate some Parmesan cheese over the top, right before you serve.
Equipment
How to Store Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce
If you have any leftover lemon garlic butter sauce, you can store it for up to a week, if not longer. You can make the sauce in a big batch and store it for later too!
Just transfer it to a glass jar or an airtight container and refrigerate it.
Another great idea is to pour it into a silicone ice cube tray or individual portion-sized containers.
Tips & Tricks to Nail the Recipe
- When using this sauce for your lemon garlic pasta recipe, remember to reserve a splash of pasta water. Then, add it to your pasta along with the sauce to get the perfect creamy lemon garlic pasta.
- The starchy pasta water is what brings that natural creaminess into the pasta. In fact, this is actually called pasta al limone.
- This reserved pasta water technique is actually effective for all other pasta recipes too. You can add a splash of pasta water to thin the sauce, and also help it coat the pasta nicely.
- You can use this garlic and lemon sauce with almost any kind of pasta of your choice. I would recommend opting for any long pasta like angel hair pasta for the perfect balance of flavor and texture.
- Remember to cook pasta until it is just al dente to get the perfect texture. Overcooking will ruin the pasta shape and texture.
How to Use Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce
You can use this delicious garlic lemon butter sauce for pasta and any other Italian dish of your choice.
Simply add the butter and garlic sauce into a saucepan with your hot pasta and a bit of hot pasta water and some seasonings of your choice. Give it a good mix and let it cook for a couple minutes before you serve.
I love drizzling some of this sauce over my Italian chicken cutlets and my absolute favorite Marry Me chicken pasta. The bright, citrusy flavors of the sauce just elevate their flavors like nothing else.
FAQs
You can! Simply use vegan butter or olive oil instead of the regular butter for this recipe, and you’re sorted.
Related Recipes
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce for Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 lemon juiced and zested
- 1 teaspoon garlic minced or grated
- 2 teaspoon parsley chopped
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large skillet or a saucepan over medium heat. Add minced garlic, parsley, salt and pepper.
- Take it off heat, add in the fresh lemon juice and a bit of lemon zest if you want to, and mix it well.
- That’s it! You can then use this sauce with whatever pasta you like and enjoy a flavorful buttery, garlicky lemon pasta recipe.
