• Pasta – spaghetti or linguine will do best here
• One lemon
• Two garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• ½ tsp red chilli flakes
• Parmesan
• Good olive oil
• Six or seven basil leaves, finely sliced
• Salt
• Pepper

This is a very quick recipe. In a wide, shallow pan, boil well salted water and cook your pasta.

Meanwhile, in another frying pan, gently cook the garlic, chilli, the zest of the lemon and a good grind of black pepper. We’re not looking for colour on the garlic – watch it and cook it very gently indeed.

When the pasta is almost done but still chewy in the centre, remove it and mix it into the other pan with just enough of the starchy pasta water to come to the top of the pasta. Add a generous helping of parmesan and the juice of half the lemon. Cook hard, constantly swirling, until the pasta is done and the pasta water has reduced to a creamy, lemony, salty, ever so slightly spicy sauce. Taste, adjust seasoning and acidity. Serve, mixing through the basil, a little more parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.