This Lemon Caper Pasta is so easy & delicious! It comes together in just a few minutes with simple ingredients. Buttery, salty, and bright – you need this recipe on your table!
When I was a kid, buttered noodles were one of my favorite meals. This lemon caper pasta takes all the same qualities of melted butter, salt from capers, and brightness from the lemon.
I love this recipe because it feels like a fancy date night type of meal, but it comes together so quickly with just a few ingredients! Lemon Caper Pasta can be made vegan by using good quality vegan butter. The creamy lemon sauce is made by sautéing shallots in butter, deglazing with white wine and lemon juice, and then adds non-dairy milk or heavy cream.
Table of Contents:
🎥 Watch the video of this recipe
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- It feels fancy! But it's so easy! This meal will make you feel like you're dining in a dimly-lit high-end Italian restaurant.
- Only 10 TOTAL Ingredients! And 3 of those are just seasoning!
- Less than 30 minutes! Since angel hair cooks so fast and the sauce comes together quickly, you can have this on your dinner table in under 30 minutes!
🥘 What you need for this recipe
Ingredients and Substitutions:
- Angel Hair Pasta - I love using angel hair or thin spaghetti for this dish. However, any pasta shape will work! Gluten-free pasta can be used as well.
- Lemon Juice & Zest - Zest and juice from one whole lemon. You can omit the zest if you're using store-bought lemon juice
- Butter - I recommend Earth Balance Vegan Butter or a good quality salted European butter.
- Shallot - I don't recommend substituting the shallot for another type of onion.
- White Wine - Try to find a dry white wine. Only a small amount is used here, so don't worry if you don't have any or can't use alcohol. Omit if necessary.
- Capers - Capers give this dish a great salty & briny flavor. For a substitution, try chopped green olives!
- Heavy Cream - If making this dish regularly, a good heavy cream is ideal. If vegan, any non-dairy milk will work here as long as it is unsweetened and unflavored.
- Garlic & Onion Powder
Tools:
📋 How to make Lemon Caper Pasta
Step 1: Start the Lemon Butter Sauce
In a hot pan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter. Once melted, add the shallots and sauté until the shallots become soft and translucent, but not crispy.
Once the shallots are soft, add 1 tablespoon of lemon zest and stir with the shallots until fragrant. Then, with the heat on high, add 2 tablespoons of white wine. Stir and allow it to simmer and reduce.
Once the wine is almost fully reduced, add ¼ cup of lemon juice. Bring this to a gentle simmer.
Next, turn the heat to low and add ¼ cup of heavy cream or non-dairy milk. Whisk until combined, making sure that the heat is low so that the lemon juice doesn't cause curdling.
Step 2: Finish the sauce and cook the pasta
Boil your pasta according to package instructions.
To the lemon butter sauce, add 2 tablespoons of drained capers. Stir the capers into the sauce. Drain the cooked pasta and add it directly to the sauce. Keep some of the pasta water in a separate cup or bowl.
Step 3: Final Touches!
Stir to fully combine the pasta into the sauce. Add salt, garlic powder, and onion powder and stir.
If necessary (if the pasta looks too dry and not silky), add a small amount of the pasta water and stir. This should help loosen up the pasta and add more starch to the sauce.
Serve on a plate and garnish with more lemon zest and capers, as well as fresh chopped parsley or chives.
💭 Expert Tips & Tricks
- Don't use expensive white wine! The majority of the flavor and aroma that makes a good wine so expensive is lost during the cooking process. Do yourself a favor and get a cheap bottle of dry white wine.
- In place of alcohol, substitute with a light vegetable broth.
- When you cook your pasta, you should heavily salt the boiling water. Then, when you drain it, you should reserve some of the salty pasta water in case the noodles in the sauce need that salty, starchy water!
- For an extra element of flavor and crunch, reserve half of the capers and pat them dry, then fry gently in oil until crispy. These add a great salty crunch to garnish the pasta!
Storage & Reheating Tips:
- Store in the Fridge: Wait until the pasta comes to room temperature and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 4-5 days.
- Store in the Freezer: Store in a freezer-safe airtight container for up to about 3 months.
- How to Reheat: Always inspect leftovers for impurities or mold by using your eyes and nose. Reheat by adding to a nonstick pan with a dash of olive oil over medium heat until heated through. Garnish with fresh parmesan.
Recipe FAQs
Capers are a pickled or brined unripe green bud of the caper bush flowers. Capers have a very salty, bright, and floral taste to them. This makes capers great for pasta dishes with lemon. They are often cooked with fish or chicken as well.
Anything with lemon or that will benefit from brininess will go well with capers! Capers are frequently used in pasta dishes, chicken piccata, dishes with white fish, lox bagels, salads, and hummus.
If you can't get your hands on capers, I suggest buying some good-quality pitted green olives. Chop the olives up finely and use those in place of the capers.
Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
Lemon Caper Pasta (Vegan Option!)
Equipment
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- Pan
Ingredients
- 8 ounces Long Pasta angel hair or linguine is best.
- 3 tablespoon Butter Use Earth Balance to make this vegan
- ¼ cup Lemon Juice
- 2 tablespoon Dry White Wine
- ¼ cup Heavy Cream use non-dairy milk or coconut cream for vegan.
- 2 tablespoon Drained Capers
- ¼ cup Diced Shallot
- 1 tablespoon Lemon Zest
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Onion Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- Grated Parmesan optional
Instructions
- In a hot pan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter. Once melted, add the shallots and sauté until the shallots become soft and translucent, but not crispy.
- Once the shallots are soft, add 1 tablespoon of lemon zest and stir with the shallots until fragrant. Then, with the heat on high, add 2 tablespoons of white wine. Stir and allow it to simmer and reduce.
- Once the wine is almost fully reduced, add ¼ cup of lemon juice. Bring this to a gentle simmer.
- Next, turn the heat to low and add ¼ cup of heavy cream or non-dairy milk. Whisk until combined, making sure that the heat is low so that the lemon juice doesn't cause curdling.
- Boil your pasta according to package instructions.
- To the lemon butter sauce, add 2 tablespoons of drained capers. Stir the capers into the sauce. Drain the cooked pasta and add it directly to the sauce. Keep some of the pasta water in a separate cup or bowl.
- Stir to fully combine the pasta into the sauce. Add salt, garlic powder, and onion powder and stir.
- If necessary (if the pasta looks too dry and not silky), add a small amount of the pasta water and stir. This should help loosen up the pasta and add more starch to the sauce.
- Serve on a plate and garnish with more lemon zest and capers, as well as fresh chopped parsley or chives.
Video
Notes
- Don't use expensive white wine! The majority of the flavor and aroma that makes a good wine so expensive is lost during the cooking process. Do yourself a favor and get a cheap bottle of dry white wine.
- In place of alcohol, substitute with a light vegetable broth.
- When you cook your pasta, you should heavily salt the boiling water. Then, when you drain it, you should reserve some of the salty pasta water in case the noodles in the sauce need that salty, starchy water!
- For an extra element of flavor and crunch, reserve half of the capers and pat them dry, then fry gently in oil until crispy. These add a great salty crunch to garnish the pasta!
Arna G. Smith says
Great collection of pasta recipes. Something for everybody.
Jordan C. says
Just made this recipe for dinner! The prep was so quick and it came out AMAZING. Gonna use the rest for leftovers at work tomorrow!
Karen says
Used your recipe to recreate and veganize a restaurant recipe I loved called Angel Hair a la Fresca. The capers were key. This recipe worked great and gave me some ideas for evolving it. I used creamer oat milk for the "cream" but I don't think it was necessary. Next time I will use fresh garlic rather than powder. Was lemon forward which I love. I will try again with end-of-season fresh diced tomatoes too. Thanks and glad I discovered your site!!
Emily says
Thanks, Karen! I'm so glad you enjoyed my recipe! The tomatoes sound like a great idea, too!!
Brooke Ashley says
Delicious! We added in sauteed asaparagus for some veg. This was fast and easy to prepare while we had friends over.
Dharma says
Found this recipe while searching for a vegan pasta using capers. Tripled the sauce recipe for a pound of pasta & added some “chick’n”. I used minced garlic instead of powder & Ripple creamer for the cream. This was super easy & DELICIOUS, but next time I’ll quadruple the sauce for better coverage on the protein.
Definitely adding this to the rotation because the flavor payoff is great for the minimal effort & ability to make the whole thing with pantry staples!