Lazy Girl Three-Ingredient Pasta (Print Version)

Creamy pasta made with butter, Parmesan, and reserved pasta water for a simple, satisfying dish.

# What You’ll Need:

→ Pasta

01 - 7 oz dried pasta (spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccine)

→ Sauce

02 - 3.5 tbsp unsalted butter
03 - 2 oz freshly grated Parmesan cheese

→ For Finishing

04 - Salt, to taste
05 - Freshly ground black pepper, to taste (optional)

# How to Make It:

01 - Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente according to package instructions.
02 - Reserve about 2/3 cup of pasta cooking water (150 ml) then drain the pasta.
03 - Return hot pasta to the pot off the heat. Add butter and toss until melted and pasta is evenly coated.
04 - Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and add 1/4 to 1/3 cup (60 to 80 ml) of reserved pasta water. Toss vigorously to form a creamy sauce, adding more water as needed for desired consistency.
05 - Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve immediately, optionally topped with extra Parmesan.

# Additional Tips::

01 -
  • Ready in 17 minutes, with minimal cleanup—it's the pasta dish that actually fits into real life.
  • Three ingredients transform into something that tastes way more complicated than it actually is, which never gets old.
  • The creamy sauce clings to every strand without a single heavy cream carton or complicated technique.
02 -
  • Keep the pot off heat when you add the butter and cheese—if the pan is too hot, the cheese will break and separate instead of melting into sauce, which I learned the frustrating way.
  • The pasta water is doing the heavy lifting; its starch is what actually makes this work, so don't skip saving it or use regular water as a substitute.
  • Freshly grated Parmesan is genuinely not optional here—pre-grated cheese has additives that prevent it from melting smoothly, and the dish falls apart.
03 -
  • The difference between a silky sauce and a broken one often comes down to temperature and patience—toss constantly for a full minute rather than giving up after ten seconds, and keep heat off the equation entirely.
  • Taste as you go during seasoning; you're not just adding salt and pepper, you're balancing richness, so a grind of pepper and a pinch of salt at a time lets you dial it in perfectly.
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