I knew this recipe was a 10-minute pasta, so I didn’t expect to spend nearly 10 minutes just preparing the ingredients.
Some of them were simple (I used frozen peas, after all), but it did take some time to slice the pancetta, zest and juice the lemon, grate the cheese, chop all of the herbs and pepper, and measure my broth and butter.
To cut back on prep time in the future, I’d go with pre-grated cheese and pre-chopped pancetta lardons.
Still, I didn’t mind the prep time. Taking a few extra minutes to assemble my ingredients made executing the sauce much easier and faster.
As soon as I added a pound of spaghetti to a large pot of salted boiling water, I started cooking the pancetta in a large skillet. (Make sure you use one that’ll be big enough to hold all the pasta at the end.)