Starring five fabulous ingredients, Julie Goodwin’s orecchiette pasta with walnut burnt butter sauce will be on the table in just 20 minutes. The lemony zing adds a delightful, fresh flavour that will make this orecchiette pasta a family favourite in no time.
Serve this pasta with a simple green salad, if you like.
Ingredients
Method
Cook the orecchiette pasta in a large saucepan of boiling well-salted water until just tender.
Place the butter and walnuts in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook until the milk solids turn brown and the walnuts are golden brown. Just before serving, add the lemon rind and juice. (This will stop the browning of the butter so make sure it’s a lovely deep golden brown before adding the lemon.)
Reserve ½ cup cooking water. Drain pasta. Toss the pasta through the sauce, adding the reserved water as needed. Season to taste with salt. Serve orecchiette pasta immediately, topped with parmesan.
Not suitable to freeze or microwave.
Julie’s note
What is orecchiette?
It is a type of small pasta. Pronounced ‘o-rek-kyet-teh’, orecchiette means “little ears”. It’s available in the dried pasta aisle at the supermarket, or from the deli section.
What can I substitute for orecchiette?
If you can’t find orecchiette, use penne or spiral pasta instead.
Ingredients in the orecchiette pasta recipe
This pasta dish is made with only five ingredients. They are:
- orecchiette pasta
- butter
- walnut halves
- lemon
- parmesan
The great thing about these ingredients is they are all widely available in supermarkets and groceries around Australia. And you likely already have most of them at home!
More dinner inspiration
Looking for more 5-ingredient dinner recipes? And what about some 5-ingredient desserts to finish off your meal with?
For more simple dinner ideas from Julie, see this list of Julie Goodwin’s family dinner ideas.
This recipe ran in The Australian Women’s Weekly magazine in 2018 and was published online in 2024.
