Pasta with Creme Fraiche, Lemons and Basil

As I was perusing through my cookbooks trying to plan the meals for this coming week, I came across this recipe for Lotsa Lemon Pasta in the I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook. I looked at the ingredient list and saw that one of my favorite ingredients was featured- creme fraiche. If you've never had creme fraiche before, I can describe it's flavour and texture as somewhat similar to sour cream. It's tangy and ever so slightly sweet. Because of it's high fat content, it doesn't separate when heated and can lend itself well to either savory or sweet dishes. I continued to look down the ingredient list and saw that arugula was listed. Because I didn't have fresh arugula on hand but had just bought a bunch of fresh basil, I decided to substitute one green for the other. As I added ingredients and stirred the sauce together, I tasted it and decided that because of the aromatic lemon zest, I only needed the juice of one lemon instead of two. I also decided to add a dash of nutmeg to the sauce and I felt it was perfectly seasoned.
When the warm pasta was added to the creme fraiche sauce, I immediately smelled the citrusy zing of the lemon and I added the basil right before serving to avoid it turning an unattractive brown. We took our first bite and it was like Spring in our bowls. Seriously. It was fresh, aromatic and made me feel happy. The recipe below is written with my substitutions and additions. I hope you'll enjoy this first taste of Spring.

Pasta with Creme Fraiche, Lemons and Basil (serves 6)
1 7.5-8 oz. container creme fraiche
juice of 1 fresh lemon
zest of 2 lemons
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 16 oz bag of bow tie pasta (or other similar sized pasta)
freshly ground pepper and salt, to taste
dash of nutmeg
10-12 leaves of fresh basil, chiffonade

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the pasta al dente. Drain the pasta and set aside.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together the creme fraiche, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper, dash of nutmeg and Parmesan cheese together. When pasta is slightly cool, add to sauce and stir. Right before serving, stir in basil. You can add more Parmesan and basil to the top, if desired. Bon Appetite!